Spirit Pokemon
by Litleo
Summary: OLD! When they finally come of age, most people are worried about getting a Bidoof or Magikarp as their Spirit Pokemon, an unbreakable link between a human and Pokémon sealed by Arceus itself. But suddenly Eden has a lot more to worry about when he receives an impossible bond with the legendary Pokémon Mew. Based off Spirit Animals. Idea is from Draconivor! OC submissions are open!
1. Chapter 1: Mew

Chapter 1:

* * *

_No birds crossed the sky and the Tree itself was completely devoid of any other life than two Pokémon that sat on one of the crystallized limbs. Even the grounds far below were empty, not even a single tree or greenery poking through the murk._

_"How long will it take?" He asked; his snowy-white fur seemed to almost glow in the misery around them._

_Mew didn't remove its gaze from the darkening sky. "I wouldn't know. Years, centuries, eons perhaps." It merely shrugged. "I will wait though."_

_"And as will I, as long as I can. I may not live to witness it myself, but I will remain here for her."_

_"You are aware that there is no guarantee that she will rise too?" Mew said warningly, almost sounding disappointed with what it was saying._

_"I know that." He was silent before "I am remaining here with you because it is what she would have done."_

_"So be it. But whenever you get sick of living in this misery, give me a call. I will be as quick as possible, and you will be reunited with her once again."_

_So the two simply sat there in silence as they watched the sun steadily dip below the horizon, the first sunset of many._

* * *

Eden knocked on the door, hoping that someone was home. He had forgotten the keys to the house at the park in his anger, and didn't really fancy crawling through the basement to get back in.

Luckily, it softly opened and he quickly walked inside. He flickered the light switch on and noticed a flash of gold in the other room.

Abi had been the oddball of the family. Genes from some random great-great-great-great grandmother or something had to randomly pop up for her and give her curls a stark difference from everyone else's' black hair. She seemed pretty satisfied with that, despite the fact that people usually mistook her for a friend.

She leaned her head back off the couch, watching as Eden walked past. "So, how did it go?" She started, her face lit up and eager.

He shook his head, and Abi's look became downcast. "Let's just say you're probably Dad's favorite now."

"Not much of a difference." She teased lightly, but stopped at his annoyed expression.

"You know, Connell was teaching me about all of Kanto's INDIGO bases. They're supposed to be secret, but seeing how an old geezer knows about them I wouldn't be so sure," She tried, attempting to start another conversation.

Eden paused. "Well, he knows _everything_, so it's not really surprising. He doesn't even have a Pokémon, so I have no idea."

In their parents' place, Connell was a family friend taking the role of a babysitter. Not that he would qualify as one, seeing how he resembled more of a deranged teacher. He was usually rambling on about weapons and teaching them illegal techniques, usually centered on Spirit Pokémon.

How a man who hadn't even received a bond knew all of this was beyond Eden. Perhaps you develop much more of an interest for something that you don't own rather than what you already have.

But he never really paid attention to the lectures, only tuning in for the real interesting stuff. Abi, on the other hand, clung to every word and looked up to Connell as an idol. All Eden saw him as was cannon fodder for the ones who were supposed to be caring for them.

A scowl must have been crossing his face, since Abi nudged him. "Geez, you're always so spiteful. Look, I'm probably just as annoyed with Mom and Dad as you, but I'm not being a grump. It's been a while since I've seen you have any fun.

"Besides, having a Spirit Pokémon is going to be a great experience for us. There'll be so much more to learn and see! I don't know why you're _scared _of them or something, but you really don't have any reason to be."

She checked the clock sited on the table and clicked her tongue. "Yikes. Time passes when you're having deep, emotional conversations, right? We should head off to bed and pretend to be asleep before Connell comes back and gives us another lecture on how your health affects your Spirit Pokémon's or something."

Eden flicked the light switch off and the room dimmed.

"See you in the morning."

* * *

As of the known history, Pokémon began to suddenly disappear on the final days of the yearly celebration of Arceus's awakening.

Pokémon were a major source of importance. They were a huge contribution to the daily life, ranging from helping out with jobs to journeying with them. The impact of a slow, dwindling loss of something that was practically their other half was deep, shaking the entire world to the core.

No one had any clue of what was causing this. But as the regions discussed the issue and more Pokémon vanished from the wilderness, farms, even the Pokeballs they were held in. Anger and frustration grew between the lands, to the point where they begun to blame each other, poking fingers at anything that they could find fault in.

Until finally, the very last Pokémon which was previously residing in Kanto, vanished from existence. That was the cutting of an already stretched thin thread, and a violent war broke out. The regions were lacking one of their greatest fighting machines so it dragged on, the areas squabbling for victory. Eventually, the battle wasn't even fuelled by the blame on another place, but a thirst for a win.

As leaders would seize random people in the crowds and place them on a never-ending chess board, blood was spilt and lives were lost. When a truce was finally called, on the day when Pokémon started vanishing. Even if it was temporarily the world could finally see what state they had put it in.

No longer were there towns with blooming flowers and cheerful laughter at every corner, but strung in ruins and hatred. Civilization remained, but the trust within it had been broken to the unrepairable.

But from the wreck, the emotional backlash and their changing view of the world awoken something inside the people. Shockingly, from the start, humans and Pokémon were connected already. Spirit Pokémon were invisible for centuries, only now seeable from the spark of deep trauma. Previously, they were passed off as hallucinations from those who had witnessed of the sort, but now that they were visible from anyone's eye.

Seeing hope in the situation, the Pokémon World began to rebuild itself, along with the help of their new companions.

A temple to Arceus was built in each region, everyone seeing it as the savior of the war. While later relatives didn't already have their Pokémon bond to their soul, they were able to receive a contract by visiting the area's shrine when they come of age and the Alpha Pokémon itself would decide of which Spirit you would get.

Wild Pokémon gradually returned, usually offspring's of rogue Spirit Pokémon that were separated from their contractor. These could be bonded with, the more they trusted and respected you the easier the linking process.

In order to assure no more wars would break out; the power was split among all of the lands, each specifying in a specific job. The Spirit Pokémon you got, depending on its abilities and power, decided which land you would stay in and train for the course you would take. You would serve it until retirement, where you could settle down and live the rest of your time. But of course, retiring was extremely expensive so most people would work for life.

If you weren't satisfied by what job you had to do, you could travel to another region and have to complete many trials to qualify for the other option. The cost was high and the chances of one failing and ending up homeless were likely, but if you ended up with a terrible original course the spoils were usually worth it.

Of course, that's what my great aunt did, afterall-"

Eden averted his eyes and tuned out, disappointed that the interesting stuff was over so quickly. Connell's lectures were sometimes tales of the history that he and Abi would latch onto before they quickly died out and became random, off-topic experiences of him or relatives.

They were currently walking towards the great Temple of Arceus in Kanto. Luckily, they lived close enough that it was a quick stroll towards the Temple and didn't have to take a train or boat. But unluckily, the Temple was situated on a large hill.

Eden sighed and glanced over at Abi, who shared a similar confused expression. They were both winded out, but Connell was showing no signs of exhaustion, the same neutral expression on his aged face.

It was frustrating, but it pushed Eden forward with the mortifying thought of being outshone by a 70 year old hunched over man who needed a cane to walk.

He was still blabbering on. "-and that's why our family get a Spirit Pokémon at the age of 13. It may be a bit young and untraditional seeing how most people get theirs at 16, but it is still better than starting at 10." The man paused. "Maybe that's why I don't have one. Maybe my coming of age is at _100_ years old!" He gave a hearty laugh and the siblings exchanged expressions.

"If coming of age was about maturity, I wouldn't be surprised." Eden muttered under his breath, but Connell somehow heard him.

"Now don't be like that Eden! You were so cute and sweet as a little kid, but you grew up to be some type of secluded teenager going through a phase."

The Temple was coming into view. It was massive, a pearl-sheen color marbled with gold. Even from the nearness to it, it looked nearly as smooth as delicate silk, not a single crack or fringe rupturing the surface. It still shone brightly, even in the clouded weather. Escaped bits of sunlight bounced off the plated edges, giving it a warm glow.

People scurried around it, others getting a bond today, Eden assumed. The more they neared the building the larger it seemed to get, towering over even the tallest trees and dwarfing nearby houses.

But when they stood at the steps, he noticed the people running around weren't fellow contractors or even just citizens, but workers.

_No,_ He thought, the right words coming into mind. _Slaves_

The disheveled look with torn, matted clothes and scars littering their frame and ragged breath as if it were hard to catch air to their lungs certainly wasn't the appearance of someone who was simply an employee, but ill inhabitants that tirelessly labored over something unwillingly. Eden jumped when a hand clenched his shoulder, steering him away.

Eden glanced at Abi, who looked completely calm. A sick feeling rose in his stomach, didn't anyone else notice the condition of these people?

"I know what you're thinking too." Connell breathed, his gaze steely as he dragged Eden up the steps. "Do you know who these people are?"

Eden slightly shook his head, expression frightened and Connell glanced around before continuing. "Those people are this Temple's slaves, ones that do the dirty work around here. What, did you seriously think all those white-robed saints in there would mop the floor? No, these people are ones that didn't receive a Spirit Pokémon, lost their Pokémon, or failed the trials. Some of them are criminals that were given the opportunity for food, shelter, and more freedom if they worked it off here.

"But most of these people are just innocents that jumped for the spoils you can get if they became a worker. A few have families they just want to feed, but most of the time they slave away here because of the promise of receiving a Spirit Pokémon."

Connell looked around again. "Of course, that is just a major lie from the Ethical's of the temple. Once you miss the chance of getting a Pokémon, you can never try again. But they are desperate, so much that they force themselves to believe fabricated pledges and immerse themselves into fulfilling the tasks, even if inwardly they know that they are wasting their lives here for naught."

"The Ethical's know that. They know that the entire balance of society is held by the bond." A smirk broke over the old man's face. "Isn't it interesting? Of how your entire life and every choice you make is completely influenced by just what you get?"

Connell let go of Eden's shoulder, who winced because despite the man's age he had a pretty tight grip. Already, they were inside the Temple. The walls were made of an uneven stone brick with torches wedged in the cracks, flickering every once in a while and casting dancing shadows of passerby's. Unlike the outside which was brilliantly tended to, the inside seemed to stay traditional, with minor leaks and vine ropes hanging down from the dome ceiling, pillars rising towards the weaved patterns at the top.

Passages spanned throughout the large hall, the shadowed Ethical's leading people down them. There weren't any of the Temple's slaves indoors, so Eden assumed the entered through another door. Another saint wearing the usual white mantle led them down a winding hallway, before directing them to a small room and telling them to wait there.

But they instructed Abi to follow them. She was going first because she was several hours older than Eden, and the order you went in was following age. She gave them a nervous grin before tailing the Ethical, her gold hair swishing behind her.

There wasn't really anything in the room, just a wooden table with a small lantern sitting on it and chairs thrown around, which Connell sat in promptly, leaning back and tilting the chair like a child.

Eden wasn't really sure of how he should feel at the moment. He was currently only minutes away from something he had been anticipating with excitement and fear for much of his life, but the only thing he felt was a dull feeling, almost of disappointment.

Connell sighed, putting his hands around his head. "Don't look so down. When I was your age, I would have given anything to be in your current place."

"And you would even become a slave for the Temple?" Eden snarled, clasping his shaking hands. Connell gave him an amused look.

"You're lucky that I was a sensible person when I was younger. If not, you and your sister's current situation would have been a bit different."

They sat in silence for the last few minutes, Connell rocked his chair back and forth and Eden twiddled with his fingers. At last, the soft footsteps of someone walking down the hall resounded and a feline Pokémon leapt onto Eden.

He jerked back with a yell, staring at its onyx eyes that were blazing with suspicion. Automatically, his brain clicked into gear and recognized it as the Disaster Pokémon, Absol. Its snow white fur and horn across its head were easy to distinguish, but its current behavior was confusing.

"Ack! Absol! Down! No jumping on Eden!" Reluctantly, the Pokémon hopped off of him and walked to Abi, but not before shooting him another doubtful glare. Abi gently stroked the Pokémon's head, shaking her head.

"An Absol, huh?" Connell split into another beaming grin. "Abi. Absol. Heh, matches!"

Abi rolled her eyes. "I'm just surprised I didn't get a Magikarp." She glanced at Eden. "Just as a warning, the bonding process is really weird. You go through all these tests and-,"

The Ethical cleared their throat. "The details of contracting remain confidential. Eden Honor, would you come with me please?"

Eden got up carefully, giving one last look at everyone else and followed the impatient Ethical through the passage.

_"Something is off about that human…"_

He jumped, glancing around. The Ethical gave him a strange look.

_Huh. Must've been my imagination. _So he followed the priest out, unaware of the Absol glaring at him.

He was eventually led into a large chamber, the brass doors slowly rolling shut. Lines of pillars were in front of the entryway, a circle of stone corridors with strange patterns embroidered in bronze surrounded a large golden statue of Arceus itself. Paned windows allowed light to leak in a rainbow array of color, the glass depicting legendary events and other statues of Pokémon Eden had never seen before lay on the wall.

There was an audience. Ethical's sat patiently in a ring around the room, some muttering to each other through their covered faces, all wearing the same identical cloth. The Ethical that led him silently walked back towards the door and stayed silently besides it.

Eden just stood there, waiting for some type of instruction. When none came, he looked around, knowing his every move was being watched.

Tentatively, he walked into the circle and a chill went through him, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over him. With a sense of foreboding, his eyes traveled up to meet the statue's blank, gilt ones.

The reaction was immediate. A wave of energy swooped through him and a bright light resounded, blinding everyone as a sharp sting ripped through his right shoulder, as if something was carving itself. A gasp echoed through the room and he bit back a yelp of pain as he tried to clear the spots from his eyes to see what was so shocking.

When his vision finally cleared up, the first thing he saw was the Ethical's stunned reaction, all of them frozen and looking up at something. Something gently tapped him on the back of his head and he turned around to meet a pair of brilliant blue eyes.

_"Mew!"_

_No, that's impossible._

Because standing right in front of Eden was the Mirage Pokémon Mew itself.

Eden had hoped that Abi's stroke of luck of receiving a good Spirit Pokémon would land him in that zone. But receiving a _legendary _wouldn't have even appeared in his wildest dreams.

Perhaps a callous Pokémon overlord had been feeling humorous today. He half expected for the heavens above to bark a laugh and then for the cat Pokémon floating before him to turn into a Zubat or something, like he was supposed to get.

Silence stretched on, shock still hanging in the air. Mew quickly got bored of just hovering and begun to fly laps around the room, twirling in the air.

Finally the Ethical's snapped out of their stupor, stumbling over their feet as they stood up and begun to argue with each other, not even bothering to mutter quickly like before.

"Wh-what, _how_ is it here?" One of them snapped, their gaze trained on Mew.

"Never mind that, how are we going to seal it again? It's in a physical state, which is going to make it near impossible."

Another one shook their head. "I don't know, but our best shot is to sever the bond and put Mew in a more vulnerable state."

What?

The Ethical's turned to Eden, and he stumbled back a bit. Mew quickly got bored of flying around and begun to poke the Arceus statue on the head, seeming to get a great deal of amusement out of that.

One of the Ethical's pressed their palm to their chest and the glowing form of an Espeon materialized. "For now, let's just try separating it mentally. If that fails, we'll have to kill the boy entirely."

_What?_

He took another step backwards before breaking out into a run for the door, shoving a still dumbstruck Ethical aside as he fumbled with the handle of it.

"Espeon! Psychic!" Someone commanded and the fox Pokémon's eyes glowed a bright blue. Eden shoved the door again, but it refused to budge for him.

Something swooped in front of him and the Psychic attack scattered against an invisible shield, the energy jumping off as thin shards, electrical sparks crawling over the stone floor. Espeon was thrown back, and Mew just floated there in front of Eden.

It turned around and quickly gave him a thumbs up, looking very pleased by his stunned reaction before suddenly becoming on the edge.

_"Heads up!" _A voice rang in his mind and he was thrown to the floor by Mew, just as a Focus Blast whizzed over his head.

The door exploded at the impact, bits of metal flying through the air. Eden wasted no time to get up and run out of there, Mew flying leisurely behind him.

He heard yells and attacks following behind him, but he didn't dare to glance back. Until he saw a flash of blond and familiar face.

He skidded to a stop and he saw Absol's eyes narrow and began to snarl angrily at him as Connell stumbled out of the room. Abi ignored them, her face more confused than frightened.

"Eden-," She didn't finish. Because right as she began, a Hyper Beam ripped right through him.

* * *

Everything burnt, fire scorching every vein or nerve Eden had. Any type of movement, even if minor would send sharp, burning recoils through him as if a knife was stabbing through.

Any sober thought that attempted to break through the thick cloud was quickly interrupted by the train from the inane side of his head. The one that seemed bent on screaming _you have a freaking hole in your chest! Stop trying to be coherent!_

At this point, he wasn't sure if he was breathing. The very idea of having to push air into your lungs sounded like suicide, seeing how he couldn't even twitch his eyes open without tearing up.

One thought finally broke through, but he didn't really know if it was even his. _"Are you awake yet?"_

Any response Eden had died at his tongue. He probably wouldn't have even been able to talk.

_"I guess you are. Good timing too! Well, you sure are an optimistic one. Sorry for the after-effect pain, it'll go away any second."_

The pain seemed to be fading away. Slowly he forced his eyes open, surprised when he wasn't hit with a great deal sting. A light pink cat was floating above him, and he stared at it in confusion before everything hit him.

Slaves. Ethical's. Arceus statues. Mew. Pokémon trying to kill him. An angry Absol-

"Where's Abi?" He said hoarsely, forcing himself up. A faint jab of pain hit him, protesting at his sudden movements.

Mew cocked its head. _"Who's Abi?" _Eden gave it a withering glare.

It held its paws up. _"You mean that blond girl? She should be fine, that Hyper Beam was only directed towards you. I did have to edit a bunch of people's memories though, just to be safe."_

They were in a clearing, a shimmering lake at their side with water Pokémon playfully splashing around in it. The sky was no longer covered in overcast clouds, the sun now bearing down at them, meaning it had only been a few hours.

He held his head to his hand, trying to stop a rising pounding headache. "What happened? Wait, scratch that, how am I even alive?"

Mew floated down next to him. _"I just teleported you out of there right when the Hyper Beam hit, use Pain Split so you wouldn't _die _from the shock on me (and your welcome for that too, it hurt like crazy) and transit a some of my mega powerful abilities and stuff via Skill Swap to you so that you would be able to heal faster. A little attack like Hyper Beam would be nothing to legendaries like me, so I guess it worked."_

"Skill Swap? Woah, does that mean…" Eden looked at his hands in fascination, wondering what he would do with the power of a legendary Pokémon.

_"Hate to disappoint you, but when you were finally all recovered I just swapped it back. If you woke up with that type of power, you'd probably be overwhelmed and your puny little human body wouldn't be able to take it. Not only that, but Arceus would be able to sense a 'disturbance in the force' once the powers were activated and all my good plans would go to naught if he found me again. But on the plus side, it would make a pretty cool light show for me to enjoy!"_

He glowered at Mew, mainly out of irritation of unanswered questions. "Why are you even-," The cat Pokémon suddenly looked up, holding a paw to his mouth.

_"Shh!" _It hissed, sapphire eyes on the alert. A loud explosion echoed off in the distance and every chirp of a bird or bug and splashing of the water Pokémon momentarily stilled, the rustle of leaves in the wind not even daring to make a sound.

Quickly, all movement resumed, but everything in the area was clearly quite shaken. Mew looked at the large clouds of smoke rising in the far distance, a small smile growing over its face.

"What was that?!" Eden demanded, stumbling up. Mew glanced down at him, its entire attire completely calm.

_"It seems that they noticed. Well, it shouldn't be surprising. Using powerful attacks should raise some suspicion."_

"What are you talking about?" He yelped, looking at the angry black fumes. Obviously whatever was there had wrecked a lot of havoc.

Mew tugged at his arm. _"Come on! Let's check it out! I have a few _friends _to meet there."_

Eden wrenched himself out of its grasp. Seriously, how was a Pokémon only spoken of in legends so immature? "What are you talking about? Shouldn't some giant black clouds be _somewhat _concerning?"

_"What if there is a giant robo monster attacking town and they need some type of superhero to fly in and save them? Come on; use the part of your brain that has some adventure!"_

"Currently, I'm using the side that has rational thoughts! I don't even have my supplies! Why would you go running towards that?"

Mew pulled at his hair, dodging his swatting hands. _"You can trust me! I'm your Spirit Pokémon, so technically I'm your conscience!"_

"How do I trust some crazy cat that pretty much kidnapped me?!"

_"I'll give you some answers if you just _go_!"_

Eden lowered his hands slowly, scowling. Mew giggled to itself and flew in front of his face.

_"You know, you just made yourself look crazy by yelling at me. I'm telepathic, remember?" _It said sweetly, tilting its head innocently.

His scowl deepened as he stood up, wincing. "It's not like it really matters, there are only Pokémon around here."

_"It'll matter even more if one of them gets bonded with a contractor and they tell them about the weirdo in the woods," _Mew teased.

"Ugh. Fine, I'll go." Eden snarled, but Mew took note that he had dropped his voice down to a whisper.

_"Great!" _It cheered and began to float in the direction of the explosion, before stopping in mid-air.

_"Hold still for a minute." _It said, flying towards Eden and gently tapping him. A chilling feeling traveled through him.

"What did you do?" He asked and Mew smirked.

_"I just changed your hair color to something a bit lighter."_

Immediately, he wrenched a couple tresses out, horrified that his original black hair had been changed to a color very similar to Abi's.

_"Huh. It actually suits you pretty well."_

"Change it back!"

_"Sorry kiddo, but all my work isn't going to naught. I can't risk anyone recognizing you."_ Mew paused. _"Or me for the matter." _

The cat's body flashed, shrinking down. When the glow faded, a small Eevee stood in its place.

Mew-Eevee climbed onto Eden's head and pulled his hair. _"Onward!"_

* * *

When they finally arrived at the blast's location, it was apparently centered in a small town. The damage that was causing the smoke fumes was only a flaming house, but strangely the entire town was isolated.

"Alright, we're here. There are no giant robots or aliens, so can we leave now?" Eden hissed. The entire secluded condition of the small city was creeping him out.

Mew shook its head, ears raised up. _"No. We have to keep looking around. If they are able to take this town over, the awareness of the entire situation will rise, and I can't let that happen."_

"What are you talking about?" He murmured, his eyes flitting over the silent scenery. He _swore _he saw something move out of the corner of his eye between the buildings.

_"What I mean is that there are people causing this."_

Eden stopped, paranoia spreading through him. He had the distinct feeling of being watched from something in the shadows.

"Who's there?" He announced, taking a step forward. Mew-Eevee slapped a paw to its face.

_"Idiot! What if it's some murder and now that you've announced that you know they are there, they'll come out and kill you?"_

A soft coo came from the alley and a Pidgeotto staggered out, ruffling its feathers nervously. Eden released a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

"Good, it's just a wild Pokémon…" He muttered, relieved. But Mew's face was anything but that.

_"Good?! That's not a wild Pokémon! What type of wild Pokémon would come out of hiding because a human said so? An actual wild Pokémon would flee." _Mew-Eevee grit its teeth. _"No, that Pokémon is trained, and we should put it down before-!"_

The Pokémon suddenly let out a shrill shriek, Eden jumping back from it and falling down. Mew-Eevee immediately shot an array of stars at it, effectively silencing it.

_"Move!" _It hissed, ears pricked up. _"If we get away fast enough, they won't know we were ever here! "_

"This was your idea in the first place!" Eden snarled, pushing himself up and jogging away from the small alley.

_"I didn't expect them to be that prepared! Now we-"The_ disguised Pokémon was shot off his shoulder with a Shadow Ball and Eden was immobilized in mid-motion

"Me-Eevee!" He yelped, trying to move. 'Eevee' struggled to stand, stumbling over.

"Good job Slowking." Someone purred, walking into Eden's line of sight and towards the fallen Evolution Pokémon.

It was a woman, long violet hair curled like the waves cascading down her back. She wore a blue coat that melted into an icy white, a long split running through the middle of it, a glittering dress that fluttered out at the end underneath it. Mew-Eevee tensed visibly at the sight of her.

"Hello Mew."

* * *

_(A/N): This is a rewrite of the original first chapter. The first one was so bad and cringe-worthy that I kinda had to do something about it._

_Next chapter: Showdown between Eden and Mew vs. evil people that I will not yet reveal, a bit of insight of Mew, and more stuff to come!_


	2. Chapter 2: Koa Hawthorn

_IMPORTANT: If you have been a reader before the July chapter update and you have not read the updated version of Chapter 1, please read it first before this, or you will be very confused!_

_Hope you enjoy~_

* * *

Chapter 2:

* * *

Eden was in the state of panic.

If anyone had asked before the last few hours of what Eden's Spirit Pokémon was, he would have proudly boasted that it was the legendary Mew.

But he was beginning to wish he had gotten the Magikarp instead.

Old Connell (he was really starting to miss him) told him many stories and old folklore of their Kanto region and beyond. Mew, although frequently mentioned in the stories, was never exactly seen in a positive light. Now that he thought of it more, Mew was almost seen as the villain. Always giving misdirected directions, sometimes even manipulating, the Pokémon would certainly fit in that category.

Although, the Pokémon never met the same sticky end like all evil usually did. In many tales, it just appeared for one short line before vanishing, the only traces of it remaining being the problems it caused.

He had begun to dub Mew as "a secret". Approximately, only one before had known about it, and by the violent reaction they had given Eden had decided to keep Mew as "a secret".

Now, two other people were aware of it. And the newest person to join the small party was far from peaceful.

So here he was, frozen and mid-air in a powerful psychic type's clutch. He could barely breathe, like there was a tight rope around his chest and was literally able to not move at all. He had been accidently paralyzed before when his father was trying to teach an electric attack to his Girafarig, but at least then you were able to at least give the slightest twitch.

The woman had her back to him, looking down at the struggling 'Eevee' with sadistic amusement and glee in her eyes. The Pokémon slowly stood up, only to falter and fall back down when the woman gave it a sharp kick.

"I expected that you were weak now Mew, but never like this." The woman then gave a short, humorless laugh that sent chills running through Eden. "As you always said, how the mighty has fallen."

Eden tried to open his mouth to let words of defense fly out, but it felt like his jaw was glued tightly shut. To his surprise though, Mew let out a pained noise as it shakily got back up, but a small smile was traced on its face.

_"But it se-s –hat you h-ve -al-n far-er -n me, -c-e. -u -ara-e as -f you -ere a-ov- me, -ut h-v- y—for-o-e- of w- you -c- w-r-?" _Eden blinked. The words sounded fuzzy and incomprehensible, like static. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman's face contort with anger. The telepathic message from Mew was apparently directed to her, so how was he able to get it?

The woman kicked Mew back down and snarled, almost ferally. "We shall see about that when I tow you to Father."

Mew-Eevee hissed, and the woman's cold gaze shifted onto Eden. If he was able to, he would stumble back.

"I knew how desperate you were, what you would do to achieve your goal, but I never thought you would play your game like this." She whispered, and Eden flinched at how evident the pity was in her voice. What was she talking about?

She turned to the Slowking, who was still holding the psychic attack up. "Hopefully, Father should be able to do something about it. You know where to go, Slowking. Use Telepo-"

"Murkrow, Sand Attack!" A huge cloud of dust suddenly rose into the alley, and he heard the Slowking give a grunt of pain and he was released from its hold. Someone grabbed his arm and he started, nearly leaping back.

"Its fine, Murkrow has your Eevee." The person dragged him out of the alley, the bird swiftly following.

They dodged between buildings, trying to get as far away as possible. "Wait-"He tried to catch his breath. "Who are you-?"

It was a girl, most likely a child around the age of ten. She ignored his unfinished question as she slowed down, dropping behind a building.

The Murkrow landed next to her, dropping the 'Eevee' gently onto the ground before hopping up the girl's shoulder, nipping at her braid.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she stroked the bird's head, but watching Eden.

"I-I'm fine." He stumbled. Mew-Eevee shakily stood back up, keeping a cautious eye on the girl. "What happened?"

She shrugged. "I ran away when the people started coming in, hid in the surrounding forest. When I returned to see if my parents and friends were okay, the town was deserted. I was just looking around when I saw you getting attacked by that lady."

So she was just as oblivious as he was. Mew-Eevee, who had still carried a wary face, stiffened at the comment, its long ears pressed against its head.

_"She's lying."_ The Pokémon said mentally. Eden shot it a confused look.

"How would you know?" He mouthed, glancing at the girl nervously. She seemed dubious of the silent conversation.

_"Synchronize. I may have transformed, but the ability still carried over. Not only does it connect psychical inflictions, but mental ones too. It can also be used for detecting strong feelings, mostly negative ones."_

There was a pause before- _"Eden, this girl-"_

"Erm, why are you two staring at each other like that? It's a bit creepy. . ." The girl asked, her Murkrow giving them a strange look as well.

Eden immediately jumped, spouting out the first thing that came on his mind. "Nope!" He said loudly, lifting up the Eevee's ears much to its annoyance and pretending to check them. "So far, no injuries."

The girl exchanged confused expressions with the Murkrow, but had bought the excuse. "I think its fine, but may be a bit roughed up. Was it hit by an attack earlier?"

Good. So she didn't see a legendary in disguise be hit by a move that should normally be non-effective. "Yeah, my Eevee was hit by a Shad-ouch!" ('Eevee' had bitten his leg) "I mean s-shade. A Nightshade attack."

"That must have been one powerful Nightshade." The girl said dryly, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I would have thought it was hit by a super-effective move, at least from how much it was struggling to stand up earlier."

Able to see the distrust in her eyes, Eden quickly changed the subject; he did not want to fuel more of that doubt. "So who are you exactly?"

"Tyu." She stated calmly, as if she were rehearsing a well practiced line. "Tyu Mos."

It was a strange name, he noted. "I'm E-"Mew-Eevee gently nudged him, giving the girl a dark look.

He quickly corrected himself. "I'm Koa Hawthorn." Plants that Abi had constantly studied to see if they would work for medical herbs had popped into his mind; as she had gained a sudden interest in them after listening to famous folktales that Connell would tell.

Eden felt a pang in his chest, a dull ache. He missed Abi; they had never been more than only a few hours away from each other since birth. He was more close to her than anyone else he knew. He knew that she was most likely taking it much better than he was, she always did.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tyu gave him a concerned look. He bit his lip; he did _not _need to start bawling in front of a ten year old.

Instead, she gave him a small smile. "I miss someone too." She said softly, almost wistfully.

He looked up, blurting out before thinking. "What are you talking about? "

The girl averted her eyes, but opened her mouth to reply before being cut off by a loud voice. "You think they are around here?"

"Yeah. I saw that girl's little bird fly somewhere around here. They told us that we should move fast. We still haven't found what we were looking for, so the last thing we need is some police circling this place."

Eden cringed, most likely these people were associated with the woman that had attacked them earlier. She must have alerted them all of their escape.

Tyu muttered something quietly to her Murkrow, who nodded and then jumped off her shoulder, flying away from the building they were hiding behind.

"Help! Help!" It shrieked in a high-pitch voice, the cries warbling through the alleys. Eden gaped; it was a perfect imitation of Tyu's voice.

"Over there!" One of the grunts yelled, and he heard their footsteps recede. Eden gathered up 'Eevee' as Tyu feverishly skirted away from the building.

"Come on!" She hissed as he followed, throwing apprehensive glances around. "Murkrow won't be able to hold them off for long."

"Where are we going?" He said back as Mew-Eevee scrambled up his shoulder, the Pokémon looking very on the edge.

"I know a shortcut out of here that should lead to Mosaic Town, where we can alert the authorities. All the main exits out of here are most likely blocked already."

"But what about your parents?"

Tyu either didn't hear his question, or ignored it as they continued sprinting through the winding roads and ducking behind small houses.

They eventually arrived at a chain-link fence with a medium-sized break in it, which Tyu easily slipped through. "Here. This passes by the main exit building, which is most likely swarming with those grunts. It still follows the path to Mosaic Town, though."

She pointed into the surrounding forest. The foliage was thick and small Pokémon cries echoed through it. The entire thing was just screaming 'dangerous place' to Eden, but unfortunately that meant they were going in.

"Are you sure it's safe?" He said, squinting at the towering trees as if expecting a rabid wild Pokémon to suddenly leap out and attack them.

"Of course it is! Well, at least in daytime. Past sunset is a nightmare, so we should get a move on. It won't take long to get through." She ushered him in, brushing off his worried protests. Even Mew seemed excited about it.

As they walked through the jungle-like woods (Eden jumping at every snap of a twig), Tyu started to ask him a round of seemingly innocent questions.

"So… What brought you to our humble town of nothingness, Koa?" She asked; hands leisurely rested behind her head.

Eden flinched at his fake name, but answered casually. "Well, I heard an explosion and saw a bunch of smoke rising from around here."

"Shouldn't that cause most people to run away?"

Eden would have been more than happy to tell her that he wished he had, but the quelling glare Mew-Eevee was giving him squashed those words down. "I guess not me?" He offered lamely as the Pokémon slapped him in the back of the head with its long tail.

Tyu gave them an amused smile, before sighing. "I wish I were like you. I was a coward; most of this town doesn't have a Pokémon like me, and instead of at least trying to fight I just ran off."

"But you helped me!" Eden protested. It felt strange, talking to her. He had rarely interacted with anyone at all.

"Any decent person would. Would you just stand there if you saw someone getting attacked?" She interjected, before running a hand shakily through her hair. She closed her eyes and gave a short exhale, muttering something under her breath.

She decided to switch topics, and Eden was glad. "You're a Spirit Pokemon Contractor, right?" She said curiously, looking at the Eevee resting on his shoulder.

Eden jumped when a low-flying Ledyba whizzed past him, but replied. "Brand new one, actually. I just set out…" He trailed off, looking towards Eevee for clarification, who just shrugged before yawning widely. "…A day ago, or so?"

"Was your family upset to send you off?" Tyu asked, and Eden winced, biting down on his tongue.

"My caretaker was. I suppose he will drink it all off, though. As for my parents…" He paused, not sure how to word it to a ten year old. "My mother was not there to see me off, she was busy I suppose. My father visited the day before, but I was…frustrated and most of the time with him was spent with me yelling at him."

"Oh." Tyu said awkwardly. 'Eevee' on his shoulder looked rather uncomfortable too. "I think they care deeply for you, though." She commented delicately.

Eden just nodded, rather uneasy. "So what about you and Murkrow?" He questioned, trying to get his mind off of it.

Tyu shrugged. "Well, my contract with Murkrow isn't really official or anything, in Spirit Pokémon standards. I just found him lying in the forest and healed him and he started to follow me around. He doesn't follow all my commands and I didn't gain anything from the bond like a Contractor would, but he most certainly isn't below a Spirit Pokémon."

"Why not go to the Temple?" Eden asked, and Mew-Eevee suddenly shifted nervously a bit on his shoulder. Tyu gave him a strange look.

"What are you talking about? There isn't a Temple around here. The closest would be the one in that Kanto city Campion, which is an entire region away. We are in the Johto region, afterall!"

"What?" He squeaked, before turning his head to shoot Mew an accusing glare. "_You teleported me to the Johto region?_" He hissed at the Pokémon, who looked rather guilty. Serves it right.

_"Okay, I'll admit it. _Maybe _I went a bit overboard with that. But it was for good reasons, I swear!" _The Pokémon protested telepathically. It was taking everything Eden had to not fall over and have a panic attack in the middle of the woods.

"Hey look, the exit!" Tyu said and pointed to the light of a clearing, interrupting the silent match between the two. She glanced between the two in confusion.

While Eden was internally freaking out, he was more than ready to get out of the forest. He shot Mew one more warning glare before quickly speed-walking out, desperate to get out of the suffocating forest.

Surprisingly, Tyu didn't say any comments about that. Her footsteps had been slowly fading, so Eden just assumed that she had fallen behind.

But he didn't expect to be suddenly besieged by a sharp electric attack that knocked him down on the dry, dead grass.

"Alright, Electabuzz. That is enough." The current stopped, and Eden groaned as he tried to move. Every muscle and nerve seemed to have been locked in place, allowing the only movement to be violent twitching. He hated being paralyzed. Next to him, 'Eevee' was in the same state.

Did Tyu betray them? He scanned the site in his line of vision, but the girl was nowhere in his sight. Mew was mentally hissing sharp profanities that would have Connell grinning pridefully for days, some human and some in unrecognizable Pokémon tongue.

The Electabuzz was recalled into passive state, and its contractor stepped back to smirk at their fellow grunts. They clearly were confident that the two wouldn't be able to get away. Unfortunately, they were correct.

Unlike before, Eden was still able to speak, although barely. "What's the plan now?" He whispered weakly, but still angry at the 'Eevee', who just gave him an irritated look.

_"We don't have one, thanks to you. I told you that girl was untrustworthy."_

"You just said she was lying!"

The Pokémon rolled its eyes. _"Shouldn't that be enough? She clearly wanted to cover something up."_

"Couldn't you have just read her mind or something? You are supposed to be an almighty powerful legendary." Eden grumbled. What was the point to having a god Spirit Pokémon when they didn't even act like one? All this one ever did was kidnap their contractor and force them to do stuff that landed them into situations like this.

_"I already tried that." _Mew said softly. _"I don't know if she was trained to barricade herself against mental attacks or if she had a psychic Pokémon protecting her already, but her mind was completely blocked."_

Was that even possible? "How does that work?" Eden wondered, watching the grunts squabble over who was going to have to carry them back because they lacked any psychic Pokémon.

_"Sometimes it is a born gift to be immune to psychic attacks, but it is incredibly rare. But that is more likely than her being trained, since it can take many years. And I doubt that she would be able to control a psychic Pokémon strong enough to deflect legendaries."_

"But then she would have to have-"Eden was cut off by a loud shout from one of the grunts. He was very sick of not being able to finish his sentences.

"Hey! No planning any escapes or sneak attacks with your Pokémon!" He snapped, before looking back to cheer loudly at his fellow grunts, who were now engaged in an arm-wrestling match to decide the argument.

_"Eden, if you want to have that panic attack, now would be a good time."_

* * *

They arrived at a large warehouse, stripped of nearly all goods and leaving only a few crates scattered across the floor. Residents were being shoved out of homes and directed into the building, protesting loudly as they argued with their captors.

But the thing that Eden noticed was their uniforms. Unlike the ones from before, who just had a simple black jacket and pants, a bright red R was branded proudly across the chest of these ones' shirts. He had been told many tales by Connell of a violent gang organization that had once run wild in Kanto and Johto. It had been long since taken down, so what was going on?

A grunt dropped them unceremoniously onto the ground and Eden winced when he fell uncomfortably on his arm. Flickering effects of the paralysis was still remaining, so they could only move marginally.

"Runaways?" A Rocket asked immediately as he walked towards the two, a thin cane in his hand. "Don't worry, we'll teach them a less-"

"No. They aren't townsfolk." A turquoise-haired one stated, stepping forward and grabbing a handful of Eden's hair, forcing him up. "Who sent you?"

"S-sent?" Eden gasped, trying to shake the lingering paralysis off. "I don't know what your—"

He was shook roughly before he could finish. "Don't lie to me boy! Unless one of the citizens called for help behind our backs, I don't see why an outsider would waltz to such a small town as this."

"Well a bunch of black smoke rising from some random place is a bit hard to ignore." He snarled. Some of the paralysis was slowly ebbing away, feeling regaining in his numb legs and arms.

"Black smoke?" The Rocket's eyes angrily darted over his surrounding accomplices, some who had rather sheepish looks on their faces. "We were given direct orders to not light anything on fire."

One of the surrounding grunts spoke up. "Nothing was burned by us. We were scouting the parameters like you told us to, and we noticed smoke rising from one of the warehouses."

They quivered under the sharp glare the turquoise-haired Rocket was giving him, but continued. "General, when we went to investigate it, there was no fire. The warehouse was nearly completely empty."

"So you left your positions? Disobeyed the Executive's orders? _And_ didn't even use a bird to defog the smoke?" Slowly, the grunt nodded and the other Rocket sighed. "When we return from this, the Executive shall find a punishment suitable for your recklessness. If it were any type of authority that had seen the smoke, this entire mission would have been at stake. We are lucky it was just a child."

There! The last bit of the stun was gone, but Eden didn't dare to move yet. He shot a glance at the Pokémon on the ground, who caught his gaze and nodded slightly.

_"I'll handle it." _The 'Eevee' then immediately shot an array of stars at the Rocket, who yelped and let go of Eden. Before anyone could react, the Pokémon sent a quick Shadow Ball to the ground, which immediately exploded on impact and sent smoke and dust through the air.

_"Come on!" _They shoved confused onlookers aside, running towards the exit of the warehouse. _"It was a mistake to come here. I didn't think that they already-"_

With a loud crack, the glowing form of a Spirit Pokémon appeared in front of them. Just moments after being summoned, a stream of hot fire was spat from the Charizard's mouth, the two diving to the ground to narrowly avoid it.

"E-executive!" The smoke faded, the beating of the Flame Pokémon's wings chasing it away. Eden was quickly apprehended.

By the way they spoke of the Executive; Eden had expected someone big and burly, a sneer always etched on their face. Not someone barely taller than him and brightly colored long hair weaved into two pigtails, someone who looked like they should be all sunshine and rainbows with a large grin always etched on their face. Although, her expression was anything but happy.

Her eyes glanced over Eden, fixating themselves on the cowering Rockets on the wall. They narrowed, and the girl's lip curled in disgust. "Why wasn't he paralyzed? Do you not know how to keep someone properly contained?"

"T-they were." The turquoise-haired one stuttered nervously. Even his earlier intimidating state seemed to cave in at the sight of the Executive, even though she was at least a foot shorter than him. "I don't know how, but they already recovered f-from it."

"Recovered from it?" She repeated slowly, and the other Rocket carefully nodded. "The Headquarters has supplied everyone with temporarily contracted Pokémon of a high level. It should be impossible to shake the effect of a paralysis off in such short time."

Her cold gaze was now fixated on 'Eevee', and Eden heard the Executive give a shark intake of breath. "Did we find the target already?"

"No, Executive."

Without even looking away, the Executive swung out her arm. "Charizard, use Fire Blast on the boy."

The dragon swung its head back and before Eden even moved Mew-Eevee had jumped in front of him, a blue sphere of energy shot out to meet with the Fire Blast attack…

Except there wasn't one. Charizard flew to the side, the Aura Sphere simply colliding with the wall. It landed softly next to the Executive, a calculating look on her face. Only then did Eden realize that the Charizard never was going to use Fire Blast on them, the Executive only wanted to see their reaction.

"An Eevee cannot learn that move!" Someone exclaimed, and low, excited mutters broke out over the room.

"That is because that isn't an Eevee." The Executive uttered, the shock even evident in her voice. Everyone fell silent, now watching.

"I think we found our target."

* * *

Eden shuddered, and gave a small hiss in pain when he was met with a jab in the ribs. Every deep breath he took earned him a sharp poke from the one with a cane, who seemed convinced that the slightest twitch was an attempted escape.

The townsfolk still hadn't been released, being closely watched by the grunts. The Executive had been arguing angrily over some communicator for several minutes and was constantly shooting furtive glances at the two. Mew hadn't mentally spoken to him yet, most likely the dark-types that had been stationed around the two were doing their job.

With a loud huff, the Executive turned to talk to the cane-wielding grunt, who looked slightly overwhelmed by what she was telling him to do. He nodded nervously, and the Executive stepped back.

"Get up." He hissed, undoing Eden's ropes. He didn't dare to try and escape, not with the snarling Houndoom at his heels. Mew-Eevee was untied after as well, and it shook the ropes off.

"Tell your 'Eevee' to revert back into its true form." The grunt snapped at Eden, tightening his grip on the cane he was holding.

"What?" At the harsh look he got from the Executive, he corrected himself. "I-I can't!"

The grunt glanced nervously at the Executive, who nodded slightly. He then swung the cane and Eden jumped out of the way with a yelp, the staff meeting air behind him with a short whistle.

"Look, kid. We aren't afraid to use psychical force if needed."

"I can see that." Eden gasped as he unconsciously rubbed his back at where the cane would have hit.

The grunt ignored him, and bat the cane at him again. This time, Mew-Eevee intercepted and the cane broke in pieces when the Shadow Ball hit it.

The few dark-type Pokémon near them barked loudly, readying to attack but the Executive held up her hand sharply.

"Wait." She walked to watching grunt, who flinched away when she pulled something from his holster. A gun.

She pointed the revolver at a woman crouched next to her children, who let out a loud shriek and stumbled back.

"Let's see if you'll transform for this, Mew."

It took only a second for Eden to process what she would going to do. He jumped up, shouting "Wait!" But at the same time 'Eevee's' form glowed, slowly growing larger.

The Executive fixated her attention on Mew and watched, an excited, greedy look washing over her face. But the grin faltered when the form Mew was taking grew much bigger then what the cat Pokémon normally was. By the time the Executive shifted the gun on Mew, it was towering over everyone in the room, head nearly touching the top of the warehouse.

And the mega-sized Salamence let out a bellowing roar that shook bits of dust from the flat ceiling, the hanging lights swaying violently.

And suddenly, for the first time since he received the contract, Eden found himself rather impressed by what the legendary could do.

The Executive leaped backwards, her gun still trailed on the dragon, and begun to bark rapid orders at the stunned grunts around her. Only when the Salamence reared its head back with fire burning in its throat did they begin to summon their Spirit Pokémon out and withdraw firearms, but at that point it was too late.

A beam of a fiery energy, much hotter than Charizard's from before, was shot from the transformed Pokémon and Eden cringed at the bright explosion that followed. The shouts from the Rocket's and shrieks from the citizens were drowned by an echoing _bang _and sound of the cords of several light fixtures snapping and smashing on the ground.

In all the chaos, the 'Salamence' shrank down to the normal size and grabbed Eden by his hood before taking a running leap into the air, just as the building caught fire.

_"This really was _a stupid idea." Both human and Pokémon said, one mentally and one out loud as Mew-Salamence let Eden crawl onto its back.

Eden made a noise like he was being strangled when he saw the flaming building they were flying away from. "There are still people in there though! I thought we went to the town to _save _them, not kill them!"

Mew slightly hesitated but continued its flight and ignored him. Eden scowled and kicked the transformed Pokémon's with the side of his shoes. "We have to go back!"

_"I thought you didn't want to play hero?"_

"I don't want to be the cause of a bunch of people's deaths!" He shouted as a small raindrop hit his cheek. He brushed it off angrily. "Go back, or at least let me down."

_"Alright." _With a yawn, the Salamence flipped over, leaving Eden dangling by hugging the Pokémon's neck.

"MEW!"

_"What?" _The Pokémon said innocently, continuing to fly upside-down. _"I thought you wanted to be let down?"_

"Not like this!" He yelled, clinging to Mew-Salamence's neck more closely. This Pokémon was insane!

With a small grin that looked deadly on a Salamence's face, the Pokémon flipped back over and continued flying casually like nothing had happened, the only difference being the glowering teenager on its back.

A clap of thunder resounded in the sky. "You are so immature." Eden muttered angrily, still hanging tightly onto the Pokémon's neck as if he were afraid Salamence would flip over again.

_"I have a reputation to keep up." _The Pokémon said gleefully, before a louder crack echoed throughout the sky.

It was only seconds until they were in the middle of a downpour.

Mew looked like it was having the time of its life, even sticking its tongue out to catch some of the raindrops. But Eden was immediately drenched, and his annoyed temper seemed to increase.

He wiped some of his soaked hair out of his eyes heatedly. "Of _course_ it starts to rain. You did this Mew, didn't you…"His eyes widened in realization and looked back to where the fire would be. Dark clouds also hovered over where the town was, and there was only a wafting blanket of black smoke slowly fading away. He glanced up to the heavily clouded sky, which held no evidence of how it was perfectly clear moments before.

_"To answer your question, no I did not cause this. But if I knew it would shut you up, I would have tried it earlier."_ It jabbed playfully, but Eden could hear the underlying tones of confusion beneath the light teasing too.

* * *

It was pouring. Lieutenant Iléas took a deep, rattling breath as he shifted uncomfortably in his wet uniform that was clinging to his freezing skin. With his luck, he would most likely get sick again, but that wasn't what was important now.

He navigated through the crowd of other officers that were helping distressed and injured towns-folk out of the destroyed warehouse. He kicked the few pieces of rubble out of his way, looking around the remains of the storage.

Small, dying embers still flickered on the ground, and he resisted the urge to wipe his watering eyes. It was still burning hot inside, low clouds of black smoke lazily drifting around. Shattered glass from broken light fixtures was everywhere, and he carefully avoided it as he pushed aside another broken crate.

There was a large scorch mark on the wall, slightly dented. He gingerly traced his hand over the indent-it was the exact shape of a circle, most likely some type of powerful Pokémon move. He stepped back, and stepped on something thin with a loud _crunch_.

He bent down and carefully picked it up. To his disgust, it was a broken cane. Not the type used for aid, but a weapon. There seemed to be no traces of blood on it though, so he hoped it had not been used on anyone.

There was an enormous hole in the ceiling, much bigger than the scorch mark he saw before. It wasn't eaten away though, like a fire would do, but as if it were punched right through.

"Lieutenant!" Someone yelled, and he swiveled around. A fellow officer was running towards him, a look of dread on his face.

He was pulled out, and led to the mouth of a forest surrounding the perimeter of the town. There was something small lying at the base of one of the trees.

Lieutenant Iléas's eyes widened in horror as they squeezed through a break in the fence around the forest. There were several other officers there, all sharing the same alarmed expression.

He kneeled down and took her limp arm, which was as cold as ice to the touch. He glanced up the girl's half-lidded glazed over eyes. She was gone.

"W-we found this too." One of the officers was carrying a tiny bird Pokémon, a Murkrow.

It was alive though, but just, the only evidence of its life being the small twitches running through it. Slowly, it wearily opened its red eyes and fixated them on the Lieutenant.

"Koa Hawthorn." It whispered, before unclenching its claw.

It was holding thin, light brown tufts of fur. He glanced at the bird, which he swore he saw it nod, and gently took the hairs from the Pokémon.

"Koa Hawthorn. Me-"It didn't finish, taking its last breath before shattering into thousands of light fragments and fading to wherever deceased Spirit Pokémon went, leaving only a black feather behind.

The feather drifted to the ground before the Lieutenant snatched it out of the air. He turned back to the girl, and gently laid the feather in her plaited braid. He ran his hand over her eyes, and closed them forever.

He looked back at the soft tufts of fur in his hand, and if he remembered correctly, that with these he would be able to find this 'Koa Hawthorn'.

* * *

_(A/N): Sorry for the huge delay (again)! I was very picky about this chapter; I kept revising things over and over because I was very unsatisfied of how things were._

_Thank you everyone for following, favoriting, and reviewing this story! I feel bad for such a late update though. Hopefully, next update will be much quicker, or at least less than a month._

_I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter! If you have any type of question, I will make sure to answer it._

_Next chapter: Storytime with Eden and Mew, on the run, back to the Lieutenant, Arceus is not happy at all, and Eden contracts with a new Pokémon!_


	3. Chapter 3: Starly

Chapter 3

* * *

Briskly, Mew shook her head and squinted her eyes in an attempt to peer into the thick fog before her. The rain has long since stopped its thundering downpour, but left a white blanket of mist in its wake, draped like a wide cloth over its surroundings. It was both convenient to Mew, but slightly deterring at the same time. She was grateful that it would be less likely for anyone to be able to see her through the haze, but the same would apply for anyone that would be able to block off their signature from the Psychic-type legendary.

Even her long wingspan had not made a dent in the fog; it just refused to disperse. She could barely see the faint outlines of the leafed tips of the tall pine trees. But she didn't want to test her luck by going any higher, where the fog line would fade and she would risk being spotted. Instead, she would use the vapor to her advantage.

The dragon dipped downwards, angling her wings so that Eden, who had fallen asleep on her back at least an hour ago, would not accidently slip off in her dive. She weaved through the trees, using her currently weak psychic senses to detect them. Carefully, she lowered herself to the ground, flying in a tight circle. She landed on the cool soil softly and looked around her surroundings.

It was quiet, only several small chirps and short calls of bird and bug Pokémon breaking the string of silence. The fog still limited her sight, only at the edge of her vision could she see the trees' thick trunks, but beyond that everything was obscured by the cloud of mist.

Mutely, the Pokémon giggled to herself. After so many years of just being immortal, just being a god, she had forgotten what it was like to be a mere mortal. She loved the sense of the unpredictable, just not knowing what could happen next. The thrill of fear she had felt when they were in that warehouse was, simply to put it, _exciting_, which wasn't a word she used often. The games Mew liked best were the ones where she couldn't predict what move her opponent would make.

Mew gently lowered Eden to the ground. He barely twitched, and she wondered how one could sleep so soundly in the danger they were in.

_Alright, Mew. Survival 101, what would be the first thing humans would do if they were in the middle of nowhere? _She would have slapped her head into her claws if she were capable of it. _Of course! Start a fire!_

She knew that it was most likely risky, afterall another main reason humans would start a fire is in hopes that someone would spot the smoke which was _not _what Mew wanted. Hopefully, the fog would mask it.

She began to dig in the ground, but then cringed at the dirt catching in her claws. _The god of Pokémon should _not _waste her time doing such mundane things! _Instead, she used her psychic abilities to lift up a mound of the mud and throw it over her head, not caring where it ended up. After setting a large leaf at the bottom, she then gathered up several decent sized logs and placed them neatly in the pit.

_Honestly, how do humans survive without any powers? _She thought as she casually spat a stream of fire on the wood, watching as it quickly lit aflame.

That would most likely keep them comfortable, not that Mew needed it. She walked back over to the still sleeping human and curled up around him, draping her large wing over him.

The Council had moved much quicker then Mew had anticipated, but it wouldn't falter in her plan. It just meant she had to speed things up a bit. The issue was that she had no clue of what was currently going on in this modern world, but she could always just simply ask Eden.

Speaking of the human… She glanced back down to him. She had no clue how she would be able to explain the situation and her reasons, and that was most likely going to be one of the first things he was going to ask about when he awoke. Originally, she thought about lying or simply skirting around the larger details, which was why it was so easy to use it as a reason for him to come with her. She was now having second thoughts though, and she hated having to rethink plans.

She cared for him, and she didn't take that very lightly. She couldn't let affection get in the way of her carefully woven plot that she had taken years to put together. But at the same time, she wanted to enjoy this journey. After years of being trapped and stuck _alone_ in a void, she was deprived of enlightenment in her long life.

Mew hated to admit this, but she was lonely. Her species was a very social and playful Pokémon, and being torn away from what was generally in her nature was, simply to put it, but extremely depressing. And she never felt that way before.

So she trusted him, or at least she wanted to, but the issue was whether he trusted _her_.

The Pokémon laid her head on the ground, just watching the glowing embers getting thrown up by the fire. _Huh. How the mighty have fallen. _She thought to herself bitterly, wondering if Suicune was right.

* * *

At this point, Eden was sick of waking up to pain.

He slowly sat up, a hand over the back of his neck. Mew, who was still a Salamence, just watched in amusement. _"Had a good night's sleep?" _She asked, and Eden just gave an annoyed huff in response. Not only was the crick in his neck painful, but he was also still extremely tired. He hadn't eaten anything yet for the last day.

Squinting up, he looked around the clearing. Not that there was much to see, nearly everything was hidden by fog, and it was dark, the only source of light being a flickering fire and the barely visible light of the setting sun. He could tell he was in a forest though, the cries of Pokémon was enough evidence for him. "What happened?" He asked, still looking around. He hated nighttime, and combined with the mist it was making him extremely paranoid.

Mew-Salamence cocked its head. _"You fell asleep. I just landed in this forest, and even made a fire!" _

She looked very proud of the fact. Eden glanced at the perfect little fire-pit. "I didn't know you knew how to create a camp fire." He was wondering how Mew was able to make it. "Did you even do it manually?"

The Pokémon looked rather insulted at that. _"Of course I did! It is incredibly simple, are you assuming I am too incompetent to do it?"_

Yes, yes he was. He didn't voice that though. "Never mind then. What's going-"Suddenly, he paused, the words he was going to say slipping out of his mouth. What was he going to say again?

He looked to Mew-Salamence, and the glow in its eyes immediately vanished. And so did his memory of the question that was just on his tongue. And slowly, other memories started to melt away too, as if they were never there-

With a high-pitched cry, something grey and small barreled into the Salamence, who merely glanced down. The bird started scratching at Mew-Salamence's thick hide, but was doing more damage to itself then to the larger Pokémon.

Mew-Salamence easily caught the bird in its large claws and pinned it harshly to the ground. _"Eden, if you are hungry, I caught breakfast." _It snarled, almost spitefully.

It was a Starly, one of Abi's favorite Pokémon. It was twittering madly and giving sharp, loud chirps to Eden. "Mew!" He said loudly, wondering what it was trying to say, "Just let it go."

Reluctantly, the dragon Pokémon lifted its large claw up. The Pokémon immediately rose into the air, but instead of simply flying away to safety it flew directly into Eden's face. It was still tweeting shrilly, and giving obvious backhand glares to Mew.

He held up his hands in defense. "I can't understand what your-ouch!" The Starly had pecked violently into the palm of his hand, drawing blood. He roughly wrenched it away and held the bleeding wound to his chest.

Only moments after, there was a sharp, cutting pain on his arm, much more sharp then the Starly's peck. It was similar to what he felt when he had first received Mew, a carving feeling as if someone were pressing a ragged knife's blade against his flesh. He cringed, and wrenched his sleeve up, expecting a large gash that was apparently cut from the air.

Instead, there was a jet-black marking, the lines of it curled into the shape of a Starly's head and a twirled body with the marking's streaks twisted into open wings. Tentatively, he pressed a single finger against the tattoo, and it suddenly erupted into a bright glow.

It was like if the tattoo had leapt off his skin, and the glowing form of the Starly he had not realized was missing materialized before him. It ruffled its feathers, cocking its small head.

_"I wouldn't trust that Pokémon, if I were you."_ Something rang out in his head. He jumped, that was _not _Mew's voice, while hers was rather playful but had a mature ring to it, this one was of a much higher pitch.

Slowly, he looked back down to the Starly, who eyed him back. Connell had told him that to contract with a Pokémon; you had to go through "tests" to establish your worthiness of being contracted to it and to gain its respect. After the contract, you gained several things, one being a telepathic link. Another, one of the most important, was the tattoo.

_"No, no, _no _Eden!" _He could just hear Connell scolding him for such an improper wording. _"A passive-state mark!" _

He knew from getting it drilled constantly into his head by Connell. It was the marking that symbolized your contract with the Pokémon, and what it became when the Spirit Pokémon either collapsed from exhaustion or simply needed to be returned. They would remain as a tattoo somewhere on the contractor's skin until the contractor themselves released it, but he had heard of some Spirit Pokémon being able to materialize without permission.

He hadn't even known if he received one, he never got the chance to return Mew, although he doubted she would let him. Nor did he expect it to be so painful, all Connell went off about was rambling about some interesting places the tattoo may appear (That left him and Abi permanently dyed red).

But apparently, somehow, he had contracted with the Starly. He hadn't even done anything.

_"It would be more like I contracted with _you_, boss." _The Starly chimed in, absentmindedly picking at the dirt with its claws. Mew rolled her eyes, resting her head back onto the ground in an irritated slump.

_"Looks like you got yourself your first official Pokémon, Eden."_

* * *

The fur that was tightly clenched in his fist was still soft, never losing its sheer shine. It was almost unnatural, Lieutenant Iléas thought, of how the fur could still stay so light.

When he had turned it in, one of the forensics had immediately recognized the bristles as fur from an Eevee. While she had told him that the "way the fur became thicker at the ends and descended into that pale cream color was a dead giveaway for her", he had no idea how one could figure out so much from glancing at a single tuft of hair.

He tapped his shoe to the tiled floor impatiently. He knew that they were most likely busy with the case of that little girl and her Murkrow. It was still a remaining mystery of her death, there had been no injuries present on her body and no traces of poison or any taint in her bloodstream. Nor was there any sign she had any internal injuries or a heart attack. Judging from the confused faces of the doctors, they most likely have never dealt with something like this.

The Lieutenant sighed, standing up and stretching his back. He was tired; having barely gotten a single wink of sleep due to all the questioning they did and their attempts to receive more information. This was a large case; especially with the word of the return of Team Rocket.

He didn't know how to feel about that; all he knew of the organization was that it was a violent ring of criminals. Most likely, they had lectured him about it back when he was just first registering as an officer, but he hadn't bothered to remember any of it. No one had expected a long dead gang to suddenly rear its head back several years later.

But even if he had been given a chance for even a small nap, he most likely still wouldn't have been able to fall asleep. His mind had refused to let go of the pale body of the girl, her hair still in that neatly tied braid tossed over her shoulder and the image of the life in the bird's eyes just slowly ebbing away as it took its last breaths. He was clawing around with the name "Koa Hawthorn"; it just clung to him and slowly gnawed away. He absolutely hated the feeling of not knowing, of not understanding what it meant.

He grit his teeth, hands crushing the tufts of fur in his hand. It was ridiculous, almost as if he were obsessed over the name. When he watched that Pokémon slowly die, he had never felt so powerless in his life. And when the Murkrow had whispered that name, he had almost felt a strong surge of hatred run through him. While he would never admit it, the hate was not entirely stemmed from that person carrying the name most likely being the cause of the Pokémon and girl's death, but more of being simply the one that had made him feel so… incapable.

"Lieutenant?" Looking up, he saw a fidgety lower ranked officer. She was clearly new, he noted. Newer officers were always nervous around him for some reason. Sergeant Charleigh had told him that he carried a "dark, intimidating aura", but he didn't exactly see why he would have one. Not that he would trust a single word from that girl's mouth, since she was usually always halfway in her daydreams.

"The forensics are asking for you. They have finished their analysis of the body." She had a calm and collected front in her voice, but she had slightly trailed off at the end, sounding slightly put-off. He didn't blame her.

He nodded. "Thank you." He said coolly, and the officer looked rather shocked as he brushed past her. _Honestly, what rumors are they spreading of me? _He thought in slight irritation as he walked down the hallway before making a stop in front of an elevator with a number pad attached to it. After stuffing the furs into his pocket, he punched the numbers in rather harshly, slightly annoyed that he lacked a simple keycard to slide instead. The light lit up green, and he was about to press the button leading down before-

"Ki-, I mean Lieutenant Iléas!" He moved his hand away from the buttons, just as another officer came running in with several sheets in their hands. "Right this way." They said quickly, and Lieutenant walked away from the elevator in slight confusion. He was instead led to an office, where several others were standing around a table and discussing (or more like arguing, Lieutenant Iléas noted) loudly as they pointed at some strange photos, using complex medical terms he had never heard of.

"There were no alterations, encephalopathy, or even benign tumors. It's rather absurd, and almost unbelievable, but the only option would be-!"

"I'm aware of that. I just don't want to believe it but…" They looked up, gaze fixating on Lieutenant Iléas. They shot an unsure glance at each other, before steadily getting to their feet. They looked almost unsure as one of the officers lifted several of the glossy sheets and offered it to him.

As he carefully took them, his brows furrowing in slight confusion, they spoke. "After making several examinations of the body, our first thought had been that the damage had taken place inwardly. But after several scans, there was no evidence of injury or anything that would lead up to her death, sir."

This was stuff Lieutenant already had known, and he had no idea why they were repeating it. He did not voice that though, so they continued. "It was rather strange, so we brought in several Pokémon to see if they could detect anything. The results were… rather peculiar.

"Only Dark-types were able to pick anything up. They had picked up detections of artificial memories and psychic meddling in her mind." At this, Lieutenant Iléas looked up from the strange scans. Artificial memories? Psychic meddling?

"But the most strange thing was…" The forensic gave a short laugh, one that sounded more of nervousness as they glanced to the other officers for support. They merely shrugged slightly, looking just as edgy as he was. "…well, that the psychic-attack traces were led back to you, sir."

Silence. And it just droned on, and on as the Lieutenant and the officers in the room just stood there in a dubious stupor. "Pardon?" Lieutenant Iléas said slowly, thinking he had misheard. Perhaps it was a fluke.

The forensic looked as if he could collapse. Maybe Charleigh was correct about his "evil aura". "T-they picked up that the attack had come and was conducted by you." A few moments of silence had passed before the forensic added a rushed, meek 'sir' after. Even after framing them, they still spoke in respect to said person.

Lieutenant Iléas just stood there, thinking how _illogical _it all was. First of all, how could he do something like that when he didn't even-

"Yes, we are aware of the… circumstances, sir. But they also have made you more viable for suspicion. Afterall, your feats were nearly thought as impossible." They said slowly, as if they had been able to read his thoughts. "We thought it was a mistake at first, but after several careful and thorough repeated scans, all the traces had pointed towards you.

"It is currently unknown of how it would work, but as for now you remain as a suspect. As much as I regret to do this, Kinell Iléas, Lieutenant of the International Police, you are currently placed under arrest for-"

He blinked. Gone was the office with the forensics in it, wiped from his view and suddenly replaced by a darkly shaded forest, as if he had been snatched from the room and simply placed in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The only sound here was the thundering pound of his own heart, side from the occasional cry of a wild Pokémon. He had done it again.

* * *

The moon was at its full height in the sky, but only a small sliver of it was visible, the rest shaded by the shadows and clouds cast over it. The only light that Eden had taken comfort in was the still burning fire, and the small embers that whisked from it.

Mew and the Starly had taken to opposite sides of the fire pit, occasionally looking up to give a sharp warning glare to each other. Eden was just sitting awkwardly in the middle; his body leaned against an oddly crooked tree. He was getting incredibly sick of just watching them engage in their silent, but furious staring match, still having no clue of what had fueled it. It was infuriating.

He was still unable to sleep, and just sitting there was clawing at his paranoia. He was already beginning to wonder if the tree he was sitting against had bugs crawling on it and what types of dangerous Pokémon may be sitting in wake around the clearing, waiting for the moment fire would snuff out and they would be able to finally attack their prey (although he had no clue of why a fire would keep them at bay).

Not only that, but Eden was uncomfortable, still cold, and extremely hungry. His life wasn't in luxury, but he had lived rather sheltered and comfortable enough, and wasn't exactly used to sleeping on the ground and going without food for a day or so. He didn't ask Mew for a blanket, and he knew she would be capable of suddenly teleporting such in. He knew she would most likely respond with something in the lines of "Does Princess Eden need her pillow fluffed too?"

After several attempts of getting in a position comfortable enough to get some sleep in, none of them being very successful, and long, drawling minutes of just watching the two Pokémon give each other fierce looks as if their life depended on it, he finally snapped.

"Do you want to hear a story?" He blurted out. Both Pokémon snapped their gazes away from each other and looked at him. He felt heat rising in his cheeks at the sudden attention. This had been the way that Connell had stopped any fights between him and Abi, and it was apparently very effective for not only siblings, but Pokémon too.

They had simply nodded, giving him an expectant, excited in Mew's case, look. Quickly, he scanned through his memory for any old folklore that he remembered, but one in particular had stood out in his mind. One not told by Connell, but from his mother instead.

He coughed nervously, and drew his knees up to his chest. "Alright." He said, and tried to recite it just the way he remembered.

"There once was a couple that lived in the middle of nowhere, deep into the desert. They had lacked enough money to live in civilization, and the forests were just far too dangerous.

They had desperately wanted a child, but were unable to have such. So instead, using their limited supplies, they instead decided started a garden, both for food and to distract themselves from that empty hole in their life."

Starly interrupted. _"Wait, how do you start a garden in the middle of the desert?"_

Mew took this as an opportunity to shoot an irritate glare at the small Starling Pokémon, but Eden simply ignored the comment. "Because they had devoted themselves to tending the garden, it grew stupendously large. Even a small tree had suddenly sprouted up, almost from nothing.

Several Pokémon living in the area had taken notice of it. Food and shelter was incredibly scarce in the desert, and they decided to take refuge in the garden. The couple was kind, and allowed the Pokémon to stay there.

In return, the Pokémon helped the couple. Grass, Ground, and Rock Pokémon kept the garden thriving, Water Pokémon kept the couple supplied with water and kept them cool, Fire Pokémon had provided heat through the freezing nights, and the rest had caught prey and brought it back to the couple in their thanks.

The garden continued to grow, and more Pokémon continued to stay there. The Pokémon had helped fill in that emptiness the couple once had. They were comfortable, no longer lonely, and happy.

Until one night, a mysterious Pokémon turned up. It was far too dark for the couple to see what it was, but it had asked "Would you still like a child?"

Despite no longer being lonely, the couple nodded. They said they would give anything for a child.

So the Pokémon responded. "Would you even give up your joy for one?"

The couple knew what the Pokémon had meant. The garden was truly the only thing of happiness in their life, other than each other, but a child would be so much more. Without thinking they both nodded quickly.

And without another word, the Pokémon was gone. Thinking it was some strange dream, the couple went back to sleep.

But when the sun rose in the sky, they woke up and saw a small child sleeping between them. At first, they were completely happy. But they then realized that they had not awaken to the Pokémon cries from outside, as they usually did. When they had gone outside, the entire garden was gone, as if it had suddenly vanished. There were no Pokémon.

They resolved that they could simply remake the garden using the few seeds they had. But all the plants they attempted to grow seemed to wilt and crumble, refusing to grow any further.

So the family could only use the current supplies they had, the ones given to them by the Pokémon that had once resided there. It quickly ran dry, and they were left with nothing. Too far from civilization and not a single Pokémon in sight, all they could do was sit there and simply wait.

The mother fell first, unable to continue any further. They buried her where the small tree had once sat, where Pokémon had once recuperated.

Unable to take simply sitting there any further, the father left the house and walked into the desert, looking for any type of help or food. He never returned.

And that just left the small child. He stayed there, the only occupant in the house. And soon the house was left empty."

Eden looked up, to see the reactions of the two Pokémon. Starly looked rather disturbed. _"Are all human fairytales like that? What about the happy ending?"_

Eden shook his head. "Most of our fairytales end with something like this. They care more about the moral, not the 'happily ever after'."

Still looking rather uneasy, Starly mentally murmured something about going to sleep before it flew up to a low-hanging branch and tucking its head under its speckled wing. But unlike the Starly, Mew looked almost curious about the story Eden told. She had her head up and legs tucked to the ground, which looked rather strange for a Salamence. _"That was interesting." _She commented, looking lost in thought about it. And with that, she curled up, facing away from Eden.

Eden guessed it worked. They were no longer glaring at eachother at least, and the current silence was better than the previous one with the air of anger in it. Gingerly, he put his hands behind his head as a rather crude makeshift pillow and lay against the tree, trying to get some sleep.

He didn't get very much, because only an hour or so later Mew suddenly jerked the two awake.

* * *

_Well, this is just lovely. _Lieutenant Iléas thought, irritated. In a bout of sudden frustration, he gave a nearby tree a sharp kick, barely even leaving a mark and upsetting several resting Pokémon on the branches above. It was a rather silly decision, for he was left with aching toes, some annoyed Pokémon barking at him and giving him harsh glares in their tired eyes, and a sullen, unsatisfied anger in him.

He hadn't even planned on trying to escape. He was willing to put up being wrongly imprisoned, and to wait until the true culprit was finally caught so he would be free to go. But of course this had to happen. It was as if he were trying to look like a criminal.

Co-workers had begun to say that he had the ability to teleport wherever he wished, and it certainly looked like that. But in the Lieutenant's personal opinion, he wouldn't call it that. He would just suddenly vanish and appear somewhere else, somewhere completely random. He never had control over it, it just simply happened. As if someone else were able to instead and he was just the one that was always the victim of it being used on him.

It would be an incredibly useful ability if he were able to control it. But there was no pattern to it, no way to predict when he would be suddenly snatched up and dropped in the middle of nowhere. So it relatively became more of an aggravating hazard, save for those few exceptions it actually saved his life.

Usually, he was placed somewhere nearby, a storage room (which the officers were most likely checking right now) if in the base, or several blocks away from a mission's main location. But this was somewhere where he had no clue where he was. There were no forests like this near Mosaic Town, and it most certainly wasn't this foggy there.

Unable to sit there wallowing in his own pity and misfortune, he decided he would have to find somewhere to make camp. He didn't want to sleep near a tree full of fuming Pokémon living in it, so he decided to find another clearing, preferably a distance away from here in case the Pokémon were feeling rather murderous. Wild Pokémon were completely unpredictable, at least from his experiences. So after scraping several lines into a tree, just in case, he decided to walk further into the forest.

It didn't take long. After carefully stepping over a log, he realized that there was a clearing ahead. It was rather small and littered with fallen branches and leaves, but it would make do. He set to work to gather materials for a fire that would get him comfortably through the night, realizing that the debris would work perfectly for it. He set all of the materials in a neat pile, and wondered if the fire would be able to light in this foggy weather.

Looking at rather damp ground and the rubble he had gathered, he decided to not, in case he made a mistake and rendered the materials useless. It was only a bit chilly, and his thick uniform was filtering the cold. The fog was gradually dispersing anyway, and he would wait.

The Lieutenant sat down, his back to a stump that was in the middle of the clearing. He had no idea where he was supposed to go with this situation. He couldn't very well waltz back to the base, proclaiming that he was innocent and he was just randomly teleported. He had painted a red target on his back, and he was now falsely considered a criminal. The only way that he could prove his innocence was if they found that the evidence was false, or if they caught the real culprit.

Suddenly, he remembered something. He reached into his pocket and pulled the locks of fur out. They seemed to have lost their glossy shine and the hairs were becoming ragged and almost crumbling under his fingers. It was strange how they could suddenly descend into such a state under the span of only several hours, but it proved his theory right. A normal Pokémon's fur wouldn't remain that glowing bright after a week or so, but a Spirit Pokémon's fur would always remain as sleek and silky. The fur hadn't applied for either category, so the only question left was _how_.

Perhaps it was a Ditto, but the fur would have just completely melted away right after the Ditto transformed into something else. And he saw that dragon with the small figure on its back fading away in the distance as it flew further from the small town. The larger the Pokémon, the longer it would take for it to be summoned, if the culprit had multiple Spirit Pokémon. And from what the townsfolk were saying, it was only seconds before the warehouse had been blown up, which was certainly not enough time for a Pokémon of the size of a Salamence to be summoned.

He didn't know any other Pokémon that had the ability to transform, besides a Zorua or Zoroark. There wasn't much known about the two Pokémon, they were so scarcely seen. He would have assumed that they would have the same effect as a Ditto, but then again he knew close to nothing about the Dark-Type Pokémon. It was most likely his best guess.

He decided that he would be able to prove his own innocence, by catching the culprit by himself. He could safely assume that the person that was on the Salamence was the criminal, at least from what the citizens of that town had told him. And from that Murkrow, he could also believe that the person was Koa Hawthorn.

Lieutenant Iléas had no clue where he should start looking though. Salamence were incredibly fast, and they would be long out of the area by this time. But then again, he had no clue where he was himself. Perhaps he was somewhere near where Koa Hawthorn was, although that was extremely unlikely.

And it was then he heard an echoing roar that caused nearly every bird in the forest to take flight in a panic.

* * *

_"Wake _up_!" _Eden was roughly shoved onto his back, and he grumbled as he rolled over and used the Salamence's wing as a makeshift blanket, snuggling into it.

"…'ive more minutes." He murmured, obviously still half-asleep. Mew let out a low, threatening snarl that could raise hairs on someone's neck up. Eden shuddered uncomfortably, but continued to sleep regardless, ignoring the upcoming danger.

She was clearly getting infuriated, and Eden refused to see the danger signs of her anger. It was only moments before the growl suddenly ascended into a bellowing roar that seemed to shake the ground and the trees around them; almost sending a huge shockwave through the clearing as birds all around them jolted up and took to the sky in their terror. Starly only merely fell to the ground on its wing, only snapping awake due to the resounding pain from its bruised appendage.

Eden jumped up, his eyes wide and the area immediately was filled with a palpable silence as Mew faced him off with a deadly glare. _"Are you awake yet?" _She said, her pupils narrowed to thin slits in her draconian eyes. Eden nodded immediately.

_"Good." _Her tone was now a sickly sweet and her face now in a false, happy bravado. _"Because we have to get a move on. Someone is here."_

"What do you mean?" He asked, and her cheerful façade faltered as it suddenly shifted back into a shadowed anger, her red eyes almost seeming to glow. He took a step back, before Starly jumped to his defense.

_"Can't you just explain a single thing?" _The Pokémon snapped, trying to look fierce as it stood its ground against Mew's glare. It's awkwardly held wing ruined the effect.

_"We move first. Then I explain." _

Starly continued to glare at the Salamence, who was nearly ten times its size. _"How do we know you won't do that psychic thing you did earlier?"_

Psychic thing? What was it talking about? Eden watched in confusion as Mew took on a slick, deadly expression. Even Starly knew that it had crossed the thin line there, and it took several nervous steps back.

_"Watch it bird." _She said slowly. _"The only reason I am allowing you to tag along and live is because Eden seems to enjoy having you around." _They were talking as if he couldn't hear them. He wasn't even sure if he was actually supposed to.

She turned back to Eden. _"Cover up the fire. We are going. Now." _Her tone left no room for any protest, and Eden quickly kicked dirt over the smoldering fire pit.

Starly hobbled along, trying to spread its wings to fly but its injured wing refused to open. Eden quickly scooped the small bird up in his arms before climbing onto the dragon, who barely gave him a second to grab hold before she spread her large wings and took to the air, just as someone came running into the clearing.

Eden swiveled around, seeing that it was a young man in a blue uniform, one that Eden recognized as an officer's uniform with a start. The man seemed to hesitate for a split second, but then suddenly ran forward, jumping into a flying leap, and latched onto Salamence's back leg.

Salamence had gained altitude quickly, and they were already above the forest trees. She growled at the man but she made no attempts to flail to get him off, not wanting to risk accidently tossing Eden off her back.

"Are you crazy?!" Eden yelped, his eyes wide at the man who just merely shot a glare at him. Perhaps this person was like that woman from before, someone that was hunting them down. "What are you doing?"

The man didn't respond, but it was evident that he was tiring from having to hold onto the Pokémon. Eden glanced to Salamence, who seemed to have noticed it too.

_"Eden, hold on. And don't drop the bird." _ And with that, she suddenly dropped from the sky and begun to spiral downwards. Eden immediately brought his arms around the Pokémon's neck and pressed his body against the Pokémon's back; hoping Starly wouldn't slip off.

He wasn't able to twist his neck to see if the man was still hanging on, although he seriously doubted that. But Mew still continued her descent in her death spiral, the ground coming into view. Just as Eden's instincts begun to scream that they were going to crash violently into the ground, her huge wings swung out and they were skimming barely above the ground.

Now able to turn his head, he was shocked to see the man, dark hair in a windswept mess and face flushed with both arms and knees around the Pokémon's leg, still hanging on. The man caught his stunned expression and, to Eden's even further surprise, gave him a small smirk.

Mew briefly glimpsed back before shifting her gaze forward again and simply continued flying low. Eden realized that she was warning the man to let go now while she was giving him the chance, before she did anything worse.

The man seemed to have noticed her warning, but he shook his head regardless. Almost immediately Mew swung back upwards much to Starly's startled chirps and Eden only had a split second to use one arm to hold onto the Pokémon's neck and the other to keep Starly in place as they violently swerved past trees. He noticed she had a gleeful, wild expression as she violently swerved past a large pine tree; she was enjoying herself.

She seemed to be looking for something though, her head turning around as she would make sharp corners before suddenly twisting herself upwards and flying back above the trees. But only seconds after that, she begun to spin downwards again, and instead of ground coming into view a giant lake revealed itself-and Mew was heading straight towards the middle of it.

He barely was able to open his mouth and shout at Mew to stop before he was hit with a mouthful of water. And only several fleeting seconds passed before they returned back up to the surface and he was able to taste fresh air again. He only had a moment to inhale a short breath before they plunged back underwater before suddenly resurfacing again, then repeat all over again as Salamence flew above the lake in her efforts to shake the man off.

The man suddenly jumped forward on one of those brief moments they were above the surface and grabbed violently onto Mew's wing. Not expecting the sudden attack, Mew let out a pained yelp before they all dropped back underwater.

Eden quickly located and grabbed Starly, swimming back upwards and saw that Mew was flailing in the water near him, the man nowhere to be seen. He begun to tread towards the Pokémon only for him to be suddenly grabbed around the middle and yanked back underwater.

A startled yelp only escaped his mouth as small bubbles as he struggled around. The man ignored him and roughly grabbed Eden's left hand and forced it against his right shoulder. Almost immediately, Starly was enveloped in a bright glow and seemed to vaporize before Eden was forced back to the surface. Mew was gone as well.

Spitting up water and trying to regain some breath back, Eden was half-dragged and half-carried back to the shore where he was roughly dumped on the graveled ground. Despite being soaking wet, the man looked relatively fine, albeit slightly exhausted from the efforts of hanging onto the Salamence.

After he finished coughing up the last of the water, he squinted up to the man who was apparently polite enough to wait for him. "Who are you?"

The man tapped a silver badge that was resting above what looked like an awful lot of honorary medals. "International Police. And you are under arrest for associating and aiding criminal organizations, terrorism, and murder."

* * *

When Lieutenant Iléas saw the dragon lifting into the air with the boy on its back, he was weighing two options-possibly his life or his future.

He was always told he was quite reckless, and he apparently held true to such rumors since he immediately jumped for the latter option. And the second he had grabbed hold of the dragon's paw, he had no regrets or second-thoughts. He was willing to do such a stunt to keep his future in place, and he most certainly was not going to have all of his work crumble because of some criminal.

And at this point, he didn't really know what to expect. He was shocked that he was able to cling onto that dragon's leg and wasn't tossed off during that huge roller-coaster like flight. Even his stomach still felt nauseous and his vision swam dangerously around after it. He must have bruises and scrapes all over his entire body after being thrown violently around like that, he swore that he hit some branches and possibly even trees on the way. Even his own motivation still surprised him.

What shocked him even further was that the culprit looked like some ten year old boy-not that shaded, hunched over figure in a dark cloak that he would see. It wasn't just the fact of appearance-wise, but the thought that someone that young would even think of committing such crimes. But Lieutenant Iléas knew to not judge from first glance-he should know that better than anyone else.

If he had any doubts of that this was the culprit he was looking for, they were gone now. Despite the mercy option the dragon had offered briefly before, during the flight every twist and turn was aiming for the kill. And the Spirit Pokémon usually took after the contractor, or was it vice-versa?

He looked back down to the drenched boy. It was hard to imagine that someone like that would do such a thing. The boy was staring at him with wide eyes, slight alarm evident on his face. Perhaps it was a type of way to deceive him, or the boy was just shocked that anyone would be able to find him.

"E-excuse me?" He swore that he saw a flash of familiarity on the boy's expression, as if he had gone through something like this before. Lieutenant raised his eyebrow at the boy when he spoke those tentative words. Alright, so the boy wanted to play dumb. He would humor that.

Lieutenant Iléas carefully extracted several of the tufts of fur from his pocket, making sure to not accidently crush the now delicate fibers. The boy's eyes widened at them. So _did _recognize them, and Iléas had no clue how one could immediately tell. Was it so easy to tell that those furs once belonged to an Eevee? Weren't they like any other brown hairs?

He brushed those thoughts before he spoke. "These were received from a victim shortly before their eventual death. And I would assume that you are Koa Hawthorn?" But he already knew the answer.

The boy immediately visibly perked up at the mention of the name, but averted his grey eyes, confirming Lieutenant Iléas' thoughts. The boy then sat up gingerly, and looked up to meet his gaze.

"How'd you know where my Spirit Pokémon's passive-state mark was?" The Lieutenant's eyes narrowed at the sudden subject change, his suspicion rising and guard up, but he answered regardless.

"The shoulder or arm is the most common place where the passive-state tattoo is. All I needed to do was hang on long enough to deduce whether you were left-handed or right, since it is usually on the opposite of your hand preference. You seemed to have used your left-hand to hold onto that Salamence and your right to keep the Starly from falling off," He surmised in a cool, steely drawl as he crossed his arms over his chest idly. "It is clear that you would need more strength to hold onto a rapidly flying dragon than just a bird, so you apparently are left-handed. And by knowing that, I could simply force you to withdraw your Spirit Pokémon back into their passive-state. Afterall, all you need to do is press your hand against where the markings would be for a moment or two, it doesn't matter if you are willing or not."

"You seem very bent on this." The boy said carefully, gaze never tearing away from Lieutenant Iléas. The man merely chuckled a bit, in a short humorless laugh.

"I guess one could say that."

The boy shifted uncomfortably at those words, before quickly shifting his arm to press his hand against his right shoulder, looking to escape. Having expected such an action, Lieutenant Iléas immediately moved his leg, knowing he only had seconds, and sharply kicked the boy's hand away. The boy instantly let out a sharp yelp, and held his injured hand to his chest, bruises already beginning to form on it.

"I can do worse." Lieutenant warned as the boy cradled his hand. Alright, he didn't mean to kick _that _hard. It was still effective, as the boy did not attempt any further escapes and merely settled on glaring up to the man.

The boy looked around, looking for a possible escape route, perhaps? But instead, he merely turned back to the Lieutenant and asked "Don't you have any type of backup?"

Iléas flinched at that question. His entire rash, uncomposed plan's goal simply included only catching the culprit. He hadn't thought about what to do afterwards, how to go back to any society and turn the boy in. He wasn't even sure where he was.

The boy seemed to gain a small smirk, noticing that cringe. Iléas inwardly cursed himself, now what was he supposed to do? He was completely unarmed, had no Spirit Pokémon, simply completely defenseless. And now the boy was most likely going to simply summon his Spirit Pokémon, have them quickly get rid of the Lieutenant, and then go back to whatever he was doing. This really was a foolish plan.

But the boy did something unexpected-instead of just summoning his Spirit Pokémon and making short work of him, he merely sat up a bit straighter and looked at the Lieutenant with not a glare, but something akin to plain curiosity. "You must have some type of grudge then, going out here by yourself. Was someone you know killed by Team Rocket?"

No. Not someone he knew. It was just that mere feeling of being in square one again was enough for him, his own ridiculous selfish desire to rid himself of anyone that seemed to knock him off his high pedestal. "No." He had lost his calm, cold composure that he usually put up as a front. "Killed by you."

The boy only cocked his head, before his eyes widened, shock and realization now shining in them rather than the simple confusion from before. "…the victim that you received those furs from didn't happen to be a little girl and a Murkrow, was it?"

"Just the Murkrow before it passed on. The girl was already dead." Maybe he could pry some more information out of this. The boy clearly seemed to know them.

He looked startled, completely ridged with his hands digging deeply into the sandy ground and the Lieutenant didn't know whether it was out of either anger or shock alone. He looked almost horrified by the news.

"…It wasn't me." The boy murmured lowly after a short minute or so of just complete silence. The Lieutenant would have given a mirthless bark of laughter, it was like having your wallet stolen and you then finding someone with an exact copy of it and said person claims they hadn't done a single thing. Well, _alright_. The person may have just found it on the ground and merely picked it up in confusion. But that was off subject.

Lieutenant Iléas waved the furs in the air. "If I were to bring these to the forensic lab, I am very well convinced that they would be able to trace the contract back to you."

If the boy wasn't angry before, he was now. "I'm not _denying _that those furs aren't from one of my contracted Spirit Pokémon, but what I am saying is that I haven't harmed the girl at all! It like…" The boy wavered for a second, struggling to find words before continuing in the same, feverish tone. "…like just walking around and finding someone's wallet on the ground, and then suddenly said person turns up and starts claiming that you were the one that took it!"

The Lieutenant gave the boy a strange look, recognizing that he had repeated just what he was thinking of earlier. He quickly brushed it off, "It's not like the person accusing the other had any clue of what had happened before." He said almost automatically, before suddenly realizing that he had unconsciously denied his own claim. He didn't even need to know the earlier occurrences! Everything was already laid out for him.

"Alright." He looked at the boy, who carried a small smile. "I'll make a deal with you."

"A deal?" The Lieutenant repeated doubtfully. He was already suspicious of this contract, how could he trust the child?

The boy nodded. "Yup. The deal is that you allow me to summon my Spirit Pokémon-" He tapped his right shoulder, his fingers not in contact with his skin long enough to release the Pokémon, but the Lieutenant immediately tensed up. "-and allow us to fly back to where ever your HQ place-thing is. Without trying to arrest or kill us. They will probably have a way to prove whether I am the culprit or not. If it is proven I'm innocent, you will leave us alone and let us go. If not and I'm proven guilty… well, you are allowed to disregard the deal if that happens."

The Lieutenant narrowed his eyes. "How will I know that you won't try to kill me once I allow you to release your Spirit Pokémon?"

The boy paused, thinking about it before shrugging simply. "You don't; that's the thing. But you seemed willing earlier to take the same jeopardy, so this wouldn't make a difference. You are still risking your life and if I have my Pokémon kill you right then and there, you would die knowing that you were right. You don't exactly know where you are, so just sitting here would most likely end up with us starving anyway. Besides-"The boy's grin grew slightly. "You aren't exactly the most killable person."

Reluctantly, Lieutenant Iléas realized he was right. They didn't exactly have much to lose. So he slowly nodded, rather disbelieving he was doing this. The boy carefully raised his hand to his shoulder with a wince, his fingers still in a bruised mess, and pressed it against his shoulder. After a few moments of just the Lieutenant waiting in a rather nervous stature, the form of the Pokémon gradually formed in front of him in a shark crack.

The Salamence was the first to move, blinking several moments before its red gaze immediately fixtured on the man in front of it. With an echoing roar that nearly knocked him back, the Pokémon swung its head back, fire spilling from its mouth as it prepared a deadly Flamethrower, the Lieutenant just as ready to leap away.

But instead, something jumped in front of the Lieutenant's view, his arms stretched out as the blond boy glared at the Pokémon in an almost scolding way while he blocked the Salamence's way. It roared something to the boy, who simply murmured something under his breath in response. The Spirit Pokémon actually looked visibly shocked by whatever he said, who just stared at the boy with its slit eyes. For some reason, the boy responded to it even though it had made no motions or sounds, and the Pokémon seemed to understand.

Looking rather disgruntled, the Pokémon gave him a short nod, but it focused on the Lieutenant with a piercing glare. The Starly shakily got off the ground, ruffling its frazzled feathers as it gave a small chirp to the boy before hopping up to the Salamence, and the Lieutenant watched in shock as the bird gave a series of loud, shrill tweets directed to the dragon, and he could almost hear a ring of irritation in the indecipherable noises. The dragon immediately ripped its gaze away from Iléas, spreading its wings out in an agitated matter and growling lowly at the small bird. The Lieutenant gave a questioning look to the boy, who looked almost bored by the behavior.

He put his hand to his head, before barking out an annoyed "That's enough!" Both Pokémon immediately retreated away from eachother, but continued to merely hiss at eachother on their opposite sides. Deciding that was good enough, he turned back to the Lieutenant.

"Are you ready to fly?"

* * *

And somehow Eden found himself in riding peacefully on Salamence with the very person that was accusing him of murderer only minutes ago.

Eden wasn't the most likeable person. Abi told him that he had a "picky" nature, rarely interacting with people unless they met the qualifications of rules he had involuntarily set. If they had a trait that he was not comfortable with, he would immediately shy away instead of simply looking at the more positive sides of the person, and that was what made simply going out and seeing others a problem. Abi had no issue with it at all; she always jumped to the chance of meeting new people. She absolutely loved talking and carrying on conversations, which was another issue with Eden. He lost interest in things quickly, and just couldn't hold his attention on anything. He would simply trail off or spout out short phrases to end a conversation quickly.

But that was what made being with Abi so interesting. Despite their sheer differences and interests that made it difficult to simply hold a small conversation, it was also what made it so enjoyable being around eachother. Eden's inability to socialize seemed to set a challenge for Abi, who had made it a goal for Eden to make one other human friend. As much as Eden rather detested going out and meeting new people, it was admittedly fun to be apart of Abi's objective.

So far, they hadn't accomplished said goal. But they had been at it only for five years! Surely, it was _reasonable _to have not yet reached their target? Connell didn't seem to think so, he always was laughing in the background of their amusable failed attempts. Eden didn't mind though, the only thing that mattered was that he was enjoying himself with his rather strange family.

Now, Eden was proud to say he had accomplished said goal. Sorta. If you counted as rather suspicious, a bit annoyed, and at least not trying to murder him anymore as a friend, the man officially qualified. Abi would be so proud.

He glanced back to the man, who was looking up at the dark sky. He looked decidedly calmer, not as jumpy as he was when climbing onto the dragon as if it would suddenly go rabid or burst into flames. He was still rather paranoid though, looking around wildly at every single hitch when Mew would fight against the stronger winds, as if she would suddenly buck him off.

Eden yawned, blinking his drowsy eyes as he unconsciously stroked Starly's head, who sat on the back of the Salamence's neck. He wondered if Mew knew where she was going; they needed to search for some type of civilization so they could know exactly where they were. So far, it was just an endless stretch of forest and wilderness, no sign of a town or city in sight.

"Long day?" Eden started, turning around to the man, whose gaze held more curiosity than malice. This had been the first words the man had spoken since they started flying; it had been just a ride of silence.

"Yes." A long day was a severe understandment; it had felt more like an incredibly bad, long week or month even. He was hungry, tired, and simply exhausted, having barely two hours of sleep. Honestly, if this was his first day with the legendary Mew, he didn't even want to know the rest.

But he couldn't lie that it was likely the most exciting day of his life. Not that he would recommend getting blasted by Hyper Beams, attacked by a major criminal organization, making dramatic escapes from burning warehouses, drowning and getting framed as a good pastime. It was like his entire day could be just summed up in a few chapters of a bad book, or something.

It was silent, the only noise being the wind whipping around them before Eden blurted out "So who are you exactly?" He wanted to stop calling the man "the man" in his head.

The man raised his eyebrow at him. "I am an officer in the International Police." He stated in a formal tone.

"No, what I mean is-"Eden waved his hands for emphasis, Abi should have taught him how to say this without being awkward or sounding probing. "-what your name is?"

The man continued to give him a strange look. "That is to remain confidential. I will not state such personal matters to a criminal." He said slowly, and Eden fumed in the background.

"But," Eden snapped out of his irate state, looking back up to the man. "You may call me Lieutenant."

Well, that was certainly better then "the man."

Eden simply nodded, not really sure what to say in response. Abi had told him that you should give your name back, but the Lieutenant seemed to already know that. Well, at least his _fake _name. So they just sat there in an awkward, unbreaking silence.

After several minutes of just sitting there, the man cleared his throat. "But what I was really wondering was what exactly _is _your Salamence really?"

Eden gave a nervous laugh, looking back to the dragon who merely gave him a scorn look in response that informed him _tell him and I'll drop you all here, mid-flight and all_.

"Well…" He said, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to pierce an excuse together. "That's a rather complicated, strange question wouldn't you say-"

Salamence suddenly let out a sharp roar, alerting the two and they both turned their heads to what the dragon was looking at. Just below them was a gleaming city, lights still flickered on in a yellow and orange glare and small figures moving about below them. It was a lucky break.

_"Actually." _The Pokémon mentally rang out as they circled the large town and dipped lower to the ground. _"I was following a major highway road. You guys just weren't paying attention."_

The Salamence landed gently just on the outskirts of the city, and after letting them all climb off she took off to the sky once more. Letting out a frightened yelp, he yelled back to the Pokémon a rushed "What are you doing?!" The dragon merely glanced back, and let out a short growl in response in the cover that she was communicating with him verbally rather than mentally.

_"Tell him that I'll return later, which I will. I have something I need to take care of." _Were her last departing words as the dragon slowly became nothing more than a disappearing speck in the sky. Starly ruffled its feathers and muttered a short _"Good riddance!" _as Eden turned to the Lieutenant, who had a surprisingly calm look.

"She'll be back." He informed him quickly, setting Starly to perch on his shoulder. Eden couldn't help but trust the Pokémon, even after all she had done. The Lieutenant just replied with a short nod, and they set out to the glowing city.

They followed a small path into it, Eden's eyes suddenly assaulted by the onslaught of radiant lights from passing by cars and buildings all around them. The city was still surprisingly crowded despite the early hour, shops remaining open and people doing their late night shifts. Starly was shooting hostile looks at every passerby with their Spirit Pokémon out, as if the small bird was challenging them.

They seemed quick to respond with a series of snarls and growls when they met the Starly's glare, and Eden gave the Pokémon on his shoulder an irritated tap on the bird's non-injured wing. "I don't need you starting a fight with every Pokémon we come across." He said, slightly annoyed as they quickly shuffled away from the scene in hopes they did not alert contractors of those Spirit Pokémon.

Eden gave a glum stare to all the glittering buildings and skyscrapers around them, almost overwhelmed by the sheer brightness of everything. He hadn't visited a city in a _long _while, his trip with his mother to Unova being his first and up until now, his only time in a city. The outskirts of the Kanto region, where he lived, had been nearly only occupied with small towns and villages, only the heart of the land having the largest cities.

He looked up to the Lieutenant, who was entirely unfazed by the intense lights and occasional loud screech of car tires. He supposed that the man was already used to this kind of thing, Johto had been told of housing some of the largest cities to date. Eden doubted that he himself would never be able to adjust to it though, he was already blinking his eyes rapidly to try and clear stinging tears forming due to the dazzling light shows.

The Lieutenant seemed to have noticed that too. "You're from the rural areas, aren't you?" He noted, sounding almost amused by Eden's reactions.

Eden wouldn't exactly call the area he lived in a country-side, it wasn't in the middle of nowhere afterall. "More that I lived in a small-town." He said slowly.

"Your Starly is faring better than you." The Lieutenant replied simply, pointing out to the bird that seemed more fascinated with the city rather than cowering away like Eden, much too said person's displeasure. If a _bird _that lived in the _wild _was able to get through this better than him, it was almost an insult.

Reluctantly, he stopped squinting and opened his eyes a fraction more, immediately painfully besieged by the radiant glow of the city. _Stupid city_, he decided. _I hope it gets a blackout-_

His eyes widened, ignoring the sudden pain. A snow white Pokémon stood out from the passing crowd, its horned head held up high as it walked beside the girl with two twin pigtails cascading down the back of her black coat in a golden glow, much longer than what Eden remembered to be. The Pokémon perked up as if it could sense Eden's gaze, and turned its head around to meet his eyes with a red stare.

It took only a moment for the Pokémon to sense those pinprickes of familiarity. The Absol let out a low snarl, its eyes narrowed as it alerted its contractor. The girl stopped and looked down to her Pokémon.

"Absol, what's wrong?" She said, before she turned her head to Eden and he almost failed to keep in a startled gasp. She looked so _different_, as if she were several years older than the sibling he knew. Nearly unrecognizable aside from the light grey eyes and her blond hair, even those being different still with the grey eyes almost shadowed and hair just only a few shades lighter.

The girl cocked her head, frowning. "Do I know you-?"

Eden's wish came true. A loud _snap_ resounded across the streets and sparks rained down from several towering billboards as the entire city seemed to flicker, even vehicles around them, before all the light around them was suddenly eradicated in just mere seconds.

Several people erupted into loud screams. The more sensible ones withdrew items such as flashlights or even keychains with a light attached to them, which at least cast a minimal glow on the street. Eden felt Starly ruffle its feathers uncomfortably on his shoulder. It was almost eerie how the _entire _city was just suddenly wiped from its earlier splendor and now in an almost pitch-black state.

_Too _strange, he noted with slowly growing horror and realization as he shot nervous looks around the city, ignoring all the muttering of confused people around him.

And almost on cue, he heard several people summon Spirit Pokémon with a crack. As their form materialized as Pokémon that almost towered over the crowd, he knew that they weren't here to help provide some light. Figures hooded in near complete black attire stepped forward, the brightly colored letter glowing against the murk around them, and Eden knew exactly who they were. This was the second time in a row.

Looking down the street, he saw and heard even more of the Rocket grunts summon Spirit Pokémon on the block. They were completely surrounded, Eden realized. What a perfect time for Mew to be gone, he thought as he saw some of the Rockets enter buildings and shops and shoved frightened people out.

The crackle of an audio system set up around the city came to life as someone's voice buzzed in over it. It had an almost metallic, strange sounding ring to it, reminding Eden of Mew's telepathy. **"Don't be alarmed, and remain calm if you wish to stay unharmed. All we are looking for is one simple thing." **It echoed throughout not only the street, but most likely even the entire city.

"The authorities will find you!" A rather foolishly brave person yelled from down the street. Eden felt the Lieutenant beside him shift rather guiltily; most likely distressed that he couldn't do anything. The voiceover chuckled through the system.

**"I doubt that. We have cut all signals to this city. But even if you are able to contact them, this is only one of many of Johto's hundreds of large cities, and out in the middle of nowhere too. We even blacked the entire town out to make it a bit harder, just in case." **It sounded almost amused. **"And interrupting someone is rather rude, is it not?"**

It was completely quiet; nearly everyone seeming to know the inevitable of what was coming next. With a sigh that was heard over the audio system, the voice said in an almost bored, simple tone. **"Kill them."**

There was a shuffle, a shout, the cry of a Spirit Pokémon and then a loud stomp that shook through the street. He heard several people scream out from down the block. And then it was silent once more, the only difference being smell of blood now wafting through the air.

**"Now let's all get along now, shall we?"**

That was much easier said than done. The hostages were especially restless, some breaking down into tears and the Rockets were getting increasingly violent, most likely hampered from their recent defeat in that town. They were ordering everyone into a straight line pressed against the front of the stores and making sure that each and everyone was facing the grunts. Eden wondered if they were doing this for the entire city.

Several people attempted to rebel against them using their Spirit Pokémon, but were easily knocked down by the much larger, more powerful Pokémon. The Rockets were clearly on the edge of their game for this.

Straining his ears, he heard one of the Rockets fiddle with a device with a screen and mutter into it "Do we have any information of what the target looks like?"

With a small crackle, the same voice from the audio system responded with a short **"I'm sending it right now."**

Some of the Rockets glanced down to their screen while the others kept watch over all of the citizens. "It's very vague." Eden heard one of the grunts comment dryly, and the audio system voice hissed in irritation.

**"It isn't exactly like we could take a snapshot. Now get a move on, we don't have all day." **

Grumbling, one of the grunts barked several orders to Rockets down the street and then started looking down the line with a critical eye and flashlight in hand. Eden quickly begun to mess with his already untidy hair, silently cursing Mew for not turning it back into its usual dark color as he tried to make the blond locks at least look _slightly _different from when the Rockets had last seen him.

Even Starly seemed to understand, as it begun to peck at lower hanging strands of hair in rather futile attempts of making it appear shorter. He heard the Lieutenant whisper a slightly confused, but more out of irritation "What are you doing?" to the two.

The grunt shined the flashlight over them without a second glance, still muttering to himself. After going down his portion of the line several times, he whipped out the device. "How am I supposed to know which person is our target?! Your description of 'blond, messy hair, male, light eyes, and kinda shortish' isn't exactly the most descriptive and informative."

Eden resisted the urge to snicker a bit as the person on the other end of the device gave a snort. **"Fine. Just go down the line again and pick out any candidates that apply for it. I thought that was a pretty decent description, if I say so myself-"**

"You wrote it." The Rocket snapped back before sighing and turning the device off as he flickered the flashlight back up and walked down the line again, pointing out anyone that seemed to fit into the depiction. Eden backed as far as he could into the wall he was leaning against, trying to blend in and appear inconspicuous. His efforts were pointless however, and when the Rocket trailed the flashlight over him the grunt immediately roughly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the small crowd of "people who fit the description.", Starly nearly toppling off.

Several other Rockets down the street gave them a signal that they had rounded everyone up. "Alright." The Rocket said, eying the group that Eden was awkwardly in critically. "There are apparently a _lot _of blond people in this city. Any other ways to narrow it down?"

He heard the person hum as they clicked around with something. **"The Executive sent in some information that our target is a child. Probably around the age of, I dunno, 11? 10?"**

Eden flinched when he heard them mention the Executive, she certainly was not the most pleasant person. But he felt rather insulted when they compared him to a 10-year old. Seriously? Was it _that _hard to tell that he was nearly a teenager? "A kid huh? I don't see why one would be running around a city, alone much less…" The grunt's voice trailed off, his eyes narrowing on Eden who stepped several paces back. "Scratch that," He said as he waved to the other Rockets to take the former candidates back into the line. "Here's one, location is Jade Vine. What about on your other ends?"

A different, much deeper voice jumped into life. **"Only two children are here that seem to match your quote, but they are both female. So I would say none at West Block."**

**"None at Hibiscus Plaza."**

**"One seems to be within the description standards, here at Achuete."** That was the final report from the Rockets, the system staying silent after that.

"Any at the outskirts?" The Rocket near them asked impatiently, waiting for their report, but the line remained silent. "Rocket Agents located at Equadorian Street, report!" He demanded, a frown coming onto his face but no data was received from the grunts located at the borders of the town. Looking slightly frustrated, he shook the device a bit.

**"Sir, no report is coming from their end. Perhaps they have been intercepted?" **One of the grunts chimed in, and the Rocket's frown deepened slightly.

"Then we better speed things up. We have two apparent candidates, should we bring them in?" The Rocket asked into the device. The audio system voice seemed to shuffle with something on their end before replying with **"No, let's just narrow it into one. We won't have to dispose of the other child that way. I am waiting for the new information to be sent."**

There was a pause- **"Situated at Jade Vine, does your candidate have a Spirit Pokémon with them? An Eevee perhaps?"**

Starly jumped, and Eden moved to place the Pokémon in passive-state, but it was too late. "Not an Eevee, a Starly." The Rocket responded, his eyes narrowed. "Probably transformed. Achuete end?"

**"No Spirit Pokémon in sight, and I doubt they have one at all. Isn't 10 a much too young age to receive one?"**

Ignoring the other grunt's question, Eden heard the audio system voice ring in with an ecstatic **"Then we have our answer!" **The happy voice seemed to melt into something more dark sounding. **"You know the drill. We can't make the same mistake as last time."**

Eden backed away, not sure what to exactly do. _Where is that crazy cat?! _He thought, scanning the skies in hope he would see the dragon come diving downwards. He was only armed with a small bird Pokémon, which the Rockets seemed to think was the legendary Mew.

Looking to the Lieutenant, he looked rather nonplussed. He saw him mouth a visible "What is going on?" and all Eden could do was shake his head, just as the grunts lunged for him.

_"Not today!" _Came the gleeful mental cry of the Salamence who seemed to have jumped out of nowhere as she landed in front of Eden and slamming her metallic-glowing wings into some of the grunts. She seemed even more jovial then her usual hyper self, occasionally stopping mid-fight to silently giggle to herself.

Eden got his answer why, because overhead the sky seemed to be filled of the loud roar of engines as many helicopters and even several large bird Pokémon flew into view. And forgetting his original, grateful thanks of gratitude, all Eden could say to Mew was a whispered "What did you do this time?"

That seemed to encourage her further, her eyes nearly in an insane-look of joy as the dragon stopped her rapid grunt-slaying onslaught to snort. _"Perhaps the greatest thing ever. I know that we were supposed to try and _find _the International Police force base, but why not bring them to us?" _She eyed all of the Rocket members who were just standing there in shock. _"And right at the perfect time too."_

People wearing familiar uniforms as the Lieutenant literally _jumped _from the helicopters, landing neatly and uninjured on several buildings as they scaled their way down. The Rockets seemed to snap out of their shocked stupor and began to flee, or at least attack with their Spirit Pokémon against all of them, but they were quickly overwhelmed by a sudden onslaught of officers that burst onto the street.

"Hey, Kinell!" Someone said, and he saw a young woman with incredibly vibrant, pastel dyed hair slide down next to the Lieutenant, a huge grin on her face. Eden watched in slight interest as the girl threw her arms around the man, who looked rather embarrassed.

"Greetings to you too, Sergeant Charleigh." He muttered dryly, pushing the women away from him. The large, almost crooked smile on her face only widened as she turned around and pointed to all of the chaos before them.

"Isn't it _awesome_?" She squealed, eyes glowing like a child as a screaming citizen pushed past her. "We haven't had something like this in months! And at that small town, all the action was already over!"

He saw Mew cut away from its fighting again and shoot a draconian grin to the woman, who responded with a happy thumbs-up sign. Eden groaned; there was apparently a human-version of Mew too.

The Lieutenant didn't seem very enthusiastic about it too. "How were you able to get here? Wait…" He looked back to the dragon who was currently in the midst of combat with an Aggron. "…That Pokémon brought you here didn't it?"

Sergeant Charleigh nodded brightly. "Yup! Well, at first it started to attack our base to get our attention, so some people went after it. It apparently led them to this city, and those people that had chased after it called in for some backup! It's a very smart Pokémon, for a wild one." The women then put her head slightly on her hand in thought. "But then again, it may be a Spirit Pokémon. But since it damaged the base pretty badly, they'll have to own up to it."

Eden chuckled nervously as the Lieutenant gave him a backhand glare. The women noticed that and quickly added "But it isn't _that _damaged! If you ignore a bunch of holes, collapsed rooms, thousands of dollars worth of damage…" Even Starly slightly cowered at hearing that, along with its contractor and the women continued, rather oblivious. "…Multiple injuries, lost information, even more thousands of dollars lost of equipment…" She sighed. "Well it's bad, but not _as _bad as it could have been!"

"…I'll find a way to fix everything?" Eden said rather meekly, adding that to the increasing list of "Problems Caused by Mew." This was only day _one_!

"I better hope so." The Lieutenant muttered, and the women suddenly perked up.

"Oh yes! I forgot to ask you something." She held out her hand. "Do you still have those furs?"

The Lieutenant looked up and silently dug into his pocket and withdrew the dead-looking fibers. Sergeant Charleigh took them deftly and carefully placed them into a thin, clear plastic bag before storing them away into a bag slung over her shoulder.

"Good. Because with these, your free to go." Eden couldn't see the Lieutenant's reaction to that through the dark, but he saw him shuffle visibly. "Well, the International Police force still has a target painted over you, but all we need to do is throw these things into the scanner and we'll be able to find our real culprit! For a Lieutenant, you can be rather dense. You seriously _forgot _to tell them of these furs?" She joked.

But Eden was worried about that. If they were able to detect who the contractor was from only mere Pokémon hairs, it would surely lead to him. Even though he hadn't done anything, he had no proof of such.

And out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mew was worried about the same thing too.

* * *

It had taken only another hour to subdue most of the Rocket members, as they were easily overwhelmed. But some had still escaped, apparently including the one from over the audio system, at least according to one of the officers. Sergeant Charleigh was sneaking the Lieutenant onto a helicopter, making sure no one spotted them before they took off to the International Police base. Eden had chosen to fly back on Salamence's back and trailed behind the plane as Starly tested out its wing.

_"Still hurts a bit, but not as bad as before." _The bird said as it gingerly stretched out its wing before immediately wincing and drawing it back. _"It hurts much more if I try to fly though. I should be better at least tomorrow." _It decided as it hopped down Eden's shoulder and onto the dragon's neck. Eden watched in slight interest, but he was thinking more of what to do. He was obviously going to be convicted as the culprit, but he was trying to figure out what he could do about that.

_"I have a plan." _Mew mentally announced, and Eden looked up to the dragon who still had not turned its head.

"What is it?" Eden eagerly asked as Starly looked at the two, but had a doubtful look on its face.

_"I'm not exactly sure if you will like it." _Starly's face of distrust immediately descended into one of just pure suspicion, but chose not to say anything. _"But I guarantee you that it will work."_

"As long as it works, it should be fine." Eden said slowly, but sounded almost hesitant himself.

_"Then that's all I need." _Mew responded simply, following the plane's actions as it slowly lowered down to a rather heavily secure building, despite some obvious holes in it and a small smoke trail coming from them.

Eying the visibly armed officers surrounding it he questioned the Pokémon's motives. "Uh, Mew? Are you sure they will allow you in? The helicopter I would understand, but a giant dragon?"

Mew grinned to him. _"Don't worry. I am a welcomed guest here!"_

They were allowed to land without complaint, but Eden thought 'welcomed' was stretching it. They were clearly still upset from the dragon's violent assault on the building as they looked slightly angered with the Pokémon as it touched ground. They did not say anything though, besides the irritated mutter of "Large Pokémon are not allowed inside the premises."

_"That isn't a problem!" _The Pokémon gave a cheeky smile before it suddenly leaped into the air and was covered in a dark purple glow, shrinking in the spot as the people around them gave a startled gasp. What landed in the place of the dragon was a dark colored fox Pokémon with a small tuft of hair on its head-a Zorua.

"So I was right?" The Lieutenant suddenly said from behind Eden, who nearly jumped. "Your Spirit Pokémon is a Zorua?"

Eden immediately saw Mew's intentions and nodded abruptly. It was a much better explanation then outright telling them he had the legendary Pokémon Mew on his side.

The 'Zorua' climbed onto Eden's shoulder, opposite from where Starly was who gave the fox an annoyed glare as if it were taking up its personal space. The Tricky Fox Pokémon merely responded by sticking out its tongue in a very Zorua-like fashion.

"Wait a minute…" One of the officers said, looking at the Lieutenant in familiarity as some of the other officers begun to recognize him too. Sergeant Charleigh groaned and pressed two fingers across the back of her left hand and a Spirit Pokémon sprung to life and landed, or _floated _in front of her.

Mew stiffened on Eden's shoulder when it saw the dark-type. "Gengar, use Hypnosis on all of the officers!" When the Gengar seemed to gain an even wider grin as it prepared its attack, Charleigh quickly added "But don't make anyone brain-dead or in a coma again!"

The Pokémon's grin faltered slightly, but it quickly knocked all of the officers besides the Lieutenant and Charleigh herself into an unconscious state. She sighed slightly in relief before turning to Eden.

"Is it possible for your Zorua to turn into people?" She asked, and Eden blinked slightly before Mew seemed to gain a grin even more frightening then before as she hopped off Eden's shoulder before leaping into the air in a violet light.

Charleigh's expression turned into a look very similar to Mew's current one, Starly blinked several times, Eden face-palmed, and the poor, poor Lieutenant just stood there, horrified as he looked at the exact, perfect replica of himself.

_Almost _perfect. The only issue was that what Zorua-Lieutenant had that the real Lieutenant didn't was a tail. A big, bushy black fox tail. And that was perhaps what the Lieutenant was even more horrified of.

Sergeant Charleigh looked as if she were trying her very hardest to not simply burst into tears of laughter. "Is there any way to get rid of the… appendage?" She snorted out, glancing at the real Lieutenant who was still standing there in shock.

The man's look-alike shook their head. _"Nope. Humans and Zorua have pretty much nearly all basic similarities, ears, eyes, and legs, but humans completely lack a tail. And you can't just make it vanish in mid-air, it's a flaw of the illusion when it comes with humans."_

It took Eden a second to notice that the telepathic message was not only directed to him. "Woah! Zorua are telepathic too?" Sergeant Charleigh yelped, after nearly jumping a foot in the air when she heard the sudden mental message. The Pokémon in disguise merely nodded.

The women rubbed her head sheepishly. "Well, that is a rather… strange flaw. But it will hold a distraction long enough! The only issue is that when it gets out that you are just a Zorua, I don't think they will be able to forgive you again…" She said, nodded to the large holes punched into the building.

The Pokémon merely grinned in response, before rushing into the building gleefully, excited to stir up even more chaos. Eden only stared in mute dismay sharing the same, appalled expression with the Lieutenant and Starly as they watched her prance away.

"…Well, we only have a few minutes. We should get a move on." Charleigh said slowly as she shoved them through the door. It was completely deserted in the building, shouts yelling down hallways as they most likely chased Mew throughout the entire base in an unproductive game of tag. The Lieutenant jolted out of his shock, but seemed to move into a stage of silent misery, muttering "They will never let me get over this…" as they rushed through the corridors.

While Eden hated to admit it, Mew was doing her job fairly well, they encountered close to no one. The only few that they had accidently ran into were quickly put down by Charleigh's Gengar as they stood there in confusion, trying to comprehend why there were _two _Lieutenants running around the building.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long. With a yelp, Mew suddenly rung in _"They found out! Some idiot grabbed onto my tail! They're searching for you guys, so you should speed it up."_

Charleigh groaned. "I wish I took that officer-preparation course, at least they gave you an entire tour of this place!"

"You mean you've been leading us in circles this _entire _time?!" The Lieutenant snarled, and Charleigh merely shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Well, I thought we were bound to run into the right place-Ah, here it is!" They skidded into a stop in front of a metal elevator and Charleigh jammed her fingers into several numbers on a keypad situated near it, muttering "hurry up, hurry up, hurry up…" as the elevator doors steadily opened, hearing loud footsteps run down the hall.

The elevator doors were nearly open enough for them to squeeze in when a huge crowd of officers thundered into the room, Mew right in their lead with an ecstatic expression on her face.

Immediately, the three piled into the elevator, jabbing at the close button violently as they glanced at the closing doors and the rampaging swarm of officers. They weren't going to make it.

Zorua swiveled around, gleeful look still on her face as a sphere of dark energy formed directly in front of her just before she tossed it into the floor in front of the horde, sending up smoke everywhere as she gave a short nod of satisfaction and jumped into the elevator just as the doors neatly closed with a soft ping.

Both human and Spirit Pokémon just sat there, shocked they had been able to make it. In a complete, dazed silence, Sergeant Charleigh stood up and pressed her index finger across a button labeled only with the letters FRNSC. The elevator slowly moved down, even playing some soft music in the otherwise mute quiet.

They reopened into a dark room; nearly nothing visible before Charleigh fumbled around with something on the wall and switched over a light switch, all the fixtures immediately turning back on. Mew transformed back into a human, this time as Eden much to his displeasure, to hold the doors open to make sure the elevator would not return back up.

"Alright." Charleigh said, finally after them just standing there, still surprised that they had been able to make it. "Now which one was it…oh here it is!"

She tapped a small, circular machine situated next to a tablet where a large computer screen sat, sliding open the cover of it and taking out the small bag with the furs in them before taking them out and dropping them into the machine before closing the cover again, humming slightly to herself as she tampered with some of the settings of it and powering the computer screen on.

Eden felt himself starting to shake when the screen lit up, symbolizing it was fully turned on and the machine activated with a small whirring noise. He glanced to the near-replica of himself standing silently in the elevator, but Mew was looking at the machine with something akin to concentration.

Even the Lieutenant looked almost nervous, and that did nothing to reassure Eden as the machine let out a soft ping, announcing that its scan was completed and the screen started to dissolve into an image showing the information.

And suddenly, everything around in the room seemed to flicker and Eden blinked. He looked around, but nothing was changed, everything still the same way it was before. What was that?

There was another ping, and his focus was fixated back to the computer screen. He blinked, and everyone seemed to have the same, confused and slightly unbelieving expression.

_"Specimen unknown." _It read simply, with a picture of the furs on the side of the large text. Eden glanced at Mew, who merely gave him a small smirk and he felt reassurance fill him. Starly, on the other hand, had the familiar look of suspicion from before, but this time it was not of malice.

Putting its arms around the back of its head in Eden's body, Mew released the open button and stepped out of the elevator, letting it go back up. _"Now let them see it themselves." _It said, leaning casually against what looked like an incredibly fancy piece of equipment.

It only took a minute for the elevator to come speeding down and a huge mob of officers to pile out of the opening doors. They seemed to fall over eachother, tidily fixing up messed up hair and attempted to fight over who was going to arrest the Lieutenant. With a sigh, Sergeant Charleigh tapped the screen with a pen she had found, one eyebrow raised as the officers slowly directed their attention towards the monitor.

It took several tries and rescans of the machines to fully convince them that the Lieutenant was not the culprit, several stubborn-headed officers still convinced of it being a trick against them. Now, Sergeant Charleigh and the Lieutenant were sitting calmly at table, drinking from mugs of steaming coffee with a main officer apologizing porously in front of them. Eden was sitting on a chair in the corner, glaring half-heartedly at his doppelganger next to him as he blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to stay awake.

"…now what?" Eden mumbled, watching as the officer began to make hand motions, apparently acting out something. Starly was already asleep, resting on the arm of the chair. Mew still had that faint grin on her face-does she ever stop smiling?-as she turned to look at Eden.

_"Now we wait. Hopefully, if my predications are correct, they'll allow us to stay here."_

_That _jolted Eden awake. "Stay? What makes you think they would do that?" Eden whispered rushedly as he moved his gaze from the officers to Mew with a startled look. "I was previously accused of being a criminal!"

_"So? Only one person seems to know that anyway. I don't even think that girl officer even knows your name! Well, at least your _fake _one."_

"I'd prefer it if no one knew who I was." Eden grumbled. "At least judging from everyone else's past reactions."

_"Oh come on! Think about it, we won't have to sleep out in the wilderness anymore. Don't be so selfish!"_

"Can't you just create a portable house or something? You're supposed to be a Pokémon god." Eden stood from the chair, carefully picking Starly up as well. "Come on. We're going."

Unfortunately, it seemed that officers had some type of sixth sense of when someone was moving around behind their back. "Hey! Don't leave!" Charleigh jumped out of her chair, springing towards Eden. "I haven't even said thank you!"

"You just said it. Let's go, M-Zorua!" Eden said, tugging at his look-alike's arm. Maybe it was his lack of sleep that was making him so rude.

"Zorua? I thought that was just a twin of that boy!" The officer that was previously talking with them yelped from behind the desk, and Sergeant Charleigh rolled her eyes slightly.

"Do you even have anywhere to go?" The Lieutenant asked skeptically. "You were in the middle of nowhere, afterall."

Before Eden could make some type of excuse, Sergeant Charleigh narrowed her eyes. "Is that so…" She said, sounding completely unlike herself before suddenly clapping her hands and gaining a bright look in her eyes. "I know! You can stay here!"

"What?!" Eden wasn't the only one who yelled that. While his was of disbelief of _easy _it was for her to suddenly jump to that decision, the Lieutenant's was more of protest.

Charleigh was grinning now, a look very similar to Mew's, and by the expression on her face she had finalized her decision. "You helped Kinell _here_-"She gave said person a particularly hard jab with her elbow to his ribcage"-prove he wasn't the culprit. It's the least we can do."

"Is it even allowed to let random people stay here?" Eden asked slowly, giving an annoyed glance over to Mew, who _still had that smile on her face_. "I don't even think they are on the best terms with my Zorua…"

Only for several seconds did the Sergeant have a visibly troubled expression by is question, but then it resolved back into her previous smile. "Well, I heard that we didn't get as many recruited people as we should have in our last round…"

Eden groaned. "You aren't telling me…"

Charleigh ignored him. "So we are holding a second round tomorrow, and just at the right time, you just happen to arrive here! We've _never _had a contractor with a Zorua before here!"

* * *

This was just one of the many things Eden had never thought he would do before, as he was steered into one of the few, hole-less dormitories (Thanks to Mew) in one of the wings. He didn't even have the time to protest as Charleigh forced the keys to the room into his hands and begun to speed-tour him around the room, the Lieutenant sulking behind them.

"-And these are the uniforms!" She held up a near identical navy blue uniform up to Eden, and frowned slightly. "It's a bit large; children usually don't receive Spirit Pokémon until they are at least sixteen or so…"

"I'll manage." Eden said in a tired tone, still wondering how he got into this situation-wait. Oh right. He shot another glare back to Mew, who simply waved cheerfully to him.

"How long have you been contracted with your Zorua?" The Lieutenant suddenly threw in, the first words he had spoken during Sergeant Charleigh's ecstatic dormitory tour. "I've heard that the longer you have been contracted with your Spirit Pokémon, the stronger it gets, so you must have been with it for several years at least."

"Well…" Charleigh came to Eden's rescue, jumping into their conversation. "Kinell! Just leave the poor boy alone." She scolded as she shoved him outside the door before peeking back inside, waving goodbye to Eden and Zorua, and shutting the door behind her with a soft click of the lock snapping into place.

And finally, it was completely quiet for the first time in many hours. Without saying a single word, he flicked the light off and fell back on the bed, placing the still asleep Starly next to him.

_"What are you doing?" _Mew asked as she reverted back into a Zorua and jumped onto the bed and sat next to his side.

"I'm going to try to get some sleep." Eden mumbled. "Don't wake me up unless it's a life or death situation."

* * *

_(A/N): Anyone see those Spirit Animal references? ;) _

_Before you ask, what would happen if one were ambidextrous? Lieutenant would probably be dead then and I guess people's passive mark would be random or on their original hand preference if they trained themselves to be able to use both hands? Funny story about that is that I'm originally right-handed, but I'm training my left-hand for writing by using my old pre-school books. _

_Welcome the International Police force! They are very dramatic with their entrances ;). In case you didn't know, that it the organization Looker is in. I may incorporate that guy in somehow…_

_I am hoping to stabilize an actual updating schedule, maybe every two or three weeks. Maybe once a week, but I'm pretty sure that is stretching it since I am in the horrible horrors of middle school._

_I created the entire folklore. Apologies if it bears similarities to any stories you know, but I can promise you that I did not take anything from them. It's just something that had popped into my mind._

_Since I made some rather major updates to the plot of this FanFiction, I'm going to be editing stuff in the previous chapters. Expect more to the world of Spirit Pokémon :)_

_Thank you so much for everyone's reviews, favorites, and follows! I was really surprised when they appeared in my email, so thank you!_

_Anyway, the main thing I wanted to discuss in this Author's Note is that I am accepting OCs! I absolutely love original characters, and I really want to include the readers into this story. But I am putting down some rules, please read them before commenting your character!_

_The main guidelines I am setting down is that firstly, don't make it a perfect, overpowered character with no flaws or weaknesses. The thing I adore the most about original characters is the personality and what makes them human in them. The thing about characters is that you want to relate to them and enjoy the challenges and the journey they take, and when they are flawless it just ruins that purpose. I don't want someone's wishful self-insert, I want the actual character._

_Secondly, when you make the character that also means you are giving me the right to do pretty much whatever I want with them. Yes, that includes killing them off. I will try to avoid that, but if we reach a time where I have to kill them off for a plot point, I will. So take caution when making your character (And don't get too attached)! If I need to change something specific, I will make sure contact you beforehand._

_And third, don't get mad if I don't accept your character. I probably will use them for another chapter. Your character may become a major one, a supporting, or even just mentioned. If I don't use your character at all, it's not because I am against you or the character but if the story gets a bunch of OC submissions I may run out of places to put people in the story._

_This is the template:_

Name:

Gender:

Age:

Appearance: (Has to be described in detail, not just "brown hair blue eyes". You can link me to a photo, but I'm not sure how you can get pass FanFiction's filtering.)

Personality: (Also in detail. I need an idea of what your character is like!)

Region: (The region your character was born in.)

Occupation: (The job you have, which depends on your Spirit Pokémon's typing. You are usually sent to the region with the occupation that will match your Spirit Pokémon, unless you decided to travel to a different region to get the job you actually wanted. The occupation guide is at the bottom of all these templates.)

Bio: (Please don't put "unknown." Even if it's boring or just average, put in important moments in your character's life. Also, please don't make it just a sob-story. Your life is not entirely miserable; there are still things you are living for. The character had to have some bright moments in it.)

Powers: (The ones you get from the bond with your Spirit Pokémon if you have one, and like it was stated in this chapter you don't gain every power your Spirit Pokémon has! Just minor ones, like if your Spirit Pokémon's a fire type you can start small fires and withstand heat, etc.)

Spirit Pokémon: (If they have one. I _am _currently allowing most legendaries, if not all depending on how well you make the profile. It won't be a first-come first-serve, it will matter more of the quality of the profile and how you incorporate the legendary.)

_Spirit Pokémon's profile; just fill this out underneath your characters:_

Name: (If they have a nickname)

Gender:

Contracted years: (Have they been in the contract with the character for one year? Two? Maybe not even a single year yet? Remember, the number of years they have been contracted also means how strong the Pokémon and its contractor are!)

Personality:

Moveset: (Number of moves it can have multiplies as the more years it has been contracted with, starting with only 4 moves allowed and then becoming 6, and then 8, then so on.)

Passive-state mark: (Where is it placed? If you want, you can link to a picture, the markings look like tribal forms of the Pokémon.)

Bio:

(If your characters contracted with multiple Spirit Pokémon, just copy-paste the above Spirit Pokémon template and fill it out with the other ones.)

_Occupation Guide:_

Kalos: Supplier – Manufacturer (Fire, Dragon, Flying)

Unova: Entertain – Song, dance, etc. (Bug, Normal, Fairy)

Sinnoh: Discoveries – Research (Psychic, Ghost, Ice)

Hoenn: Distributes the supplies to Kalos – Farming, building, etc. (Water, Grass, Ground)

Johto: Military – War (Rock, Fighting, Poison)

Kanto: Innovation – Inventions (Electric, Steel, Dark)

_For duel types, do the type that fits more for the Pokémon. Like how Flying fits more than Normal for a Pidgeot._

_You don't need to fit into these categories; these are just the main options for the main regions. Most likely if you chose to have a legendary you won't fit for any of the categories. You can even be a villain, like in Team Rocket or something, if you want!_

_Hope you guys enjoyed this mega-chapter and I hope to see you join this story!_

_As always, if you have any questions or concerns, either comment them or PM me. I'll answer back as quickly as I can!_

_Also, if you are a new reader in the future, you can only submit an OC if the line 'OC SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN' is in the description of the story. If it isn't, please don't comment an OC. I most likely took it off because the submissions are closed for that time._

Next chapter: Welcome to the International Police force Eden! Friends, foes, and a test! (Not without cheating of course) And Mew is being pretty suspicious…


End file.
